
Class _^ 

Rook ."Pc 3p£ 



W. S. WARNER & CO., 

PALMA SOLA, FLORIDA, 

Yellow Pined Cypress Lumber Manufacturers 

DEALERS IN 

Doors, Sash, Blinds and ail Building Materials 



WHOLESALE DEALERS IN 



ICE, HAY, GRAIN, FLOUR, BULK MEATS, 

(Jeqeflsl IVfercgandi^e, 

General Commission Merchants in Florida Produce. 



Local Agents Florida Land & Improvement Co. 

Offering in our Agency 80,000 acres selected lands. 

Local Land Agents Florida Southern R. R, Co. 

400,000 acres of the best pine lands. 

Local Agents PALMA SOLA LAND CO. 

13,000 acres of the choicest selections of fruit lands 
in the most tropical part of Florida. 

Special terms to settlers in this tract given on ap- 
plication. 

Local Agents South Florida R. R. Co. 

The De Soto Route to the Gulf Coast. 

Local Agents of " The Bonanza Tract." 

13,000 acres of choice hammock and sugar cane 
lands, suited to the production of early vegetables. 

CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED. 



I 






PALMA SOLA. 



THE 



YOUNGEST AND LARGEST TOWN 

IN 

Floeida. 



NEW YOKE: 

BBOUN & GllEEN, STATIONERS. 

40 JB e a v !•: e Stbei t. 



fall 



~TF* 3 



m 






PALMA SOLA, AUGUST 1, 1884. 



) *w<*vkj± ^ 



The Youngest and L/rgest Town in Florida. 



ITS LOCATION AND ADVANTAGES OF CLIMATE, GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 
SOCIETY AND MANUFACTURING INTERESTS, AS ATTRACTIONS FOR THE 
TOURIST, LAND HUNTER, FLORIDA SETTLER, SPECULATOR, AND 
FOR THOSE RESIDENTS GENERALLY OF THE FRIGID ZONE NORTH 
OF FLORIDA WHO FOR THE ATTAINMENT OF GREATER HAPPINESS 
REALLY SHOULD LIVE HERE. 



By a Resident whose Experience Dates from August 16, 1868, to 
the Present Time. 
The traveler by water, coming south in one of the vessels of the 
Tampa Steamship Company from Cedar Keys, as he enters the fine 
harbor of Tampa Bay, passing Egmont Lighthouse, sees ahead across 
nine miles of blue water a cluster of white houses, apparently upon 
the southeast shore of Tampa Bay, and is told by the ever-present 
tourist, who has been there before and is pining to give information, 
that that is Palma Sola, the City of the "Lone Balm." From 
Egmont Lighthouse it appears to be upon the shore of the bay, but as 
the steamer plows her way through the clear water a large harbor or 
estuary opens out before him, and it becomes apparent that this 
city by the Gulf is located upon a body of water, that for beauty of 
shore line and perfection as a harbor has no equal in Florida. 
Two miles from the wharves and warehouses now in plain sight the 
steamer passes the bar buoy, when again our well informed tourist 
says, "Uncle Sam has just expended $12,000 in dredging this bar, 



PALMA SOLA. 



and this steamer has 12^ feet of water under her at low tide, where 
formerly there was but nine, making this the deepest harbor 
channel on the Gulf coast between Pensacola and Key West.' 
Right again, Mr. Tourist, and as our vessel progresses up the 
Manatee River, or, more properly, Bay, and the eve takes in its mile 
and more of width and four miles of length, and is told of its 
uniform depth of three fathoms, the same idea strikes the observer 
that is striking the projectors of all the railroads to the Gulf Coast, 
namely, that it is fhe harbor for terminal facilities for their roads- 
An idea that ere another summer's showers shall have passed over 
its sparkling waters will result in the building of wharves and ware- 
houses on its shores for the business of the road, that from here 
sends its passengers by steamers to Key West and Havana. 

"Through from New York to Cuba in four and one-half days." 
Manatee Bay, it should properly be called, for from its mouth as 
defined by the west end of Snead's Island on the north and Shaw's 
Point on its south shore to a point seven miles east, the harbor 
maintains a uniform width of about a mile and a quarter, widening 
out to a mile and one-half in front of Palma Sola. The tides 
ebb r.nd flow, the water being pure salt Gulf water, with no fresh 
water currents or influences at any season of the year. Above and 
east of this point, seven miles from the mouth, this bay begins to 
assume some of the characteristics of a fresh water river, rush grass 
islands, mangrove bushes, etc. Scattered along at about even 
intervals on the shore are, first, Palma Sola, next Braidentown, then 
Manatee and Palmetto, all having suitable steamboat landings — 
Fogartysville and Ellentown, two smaller towns, not being so dis- 
tinguished as yet. Like the others, however, "great in the future," 
their inhabitants dream of a business that shall build wharves and 
draw the commercial navies of the world to their doors. "Palma 
Sola passengers claim their baggage." The steamer is fast to a long 
wharf covered by a one-story warehouse and store, entering which 
we find the most varied assortment of merchandise conceivable. 
Ship stores, dry goods, furniture, drugs, household utensils, hats 
and clothing, groceries, jewelry — an imitation in a moderate way of 
Macy's big Sixth Avenue store. Here the dwellers in Palma Sola 
and the surrounding country supply their wants, it being a frequently 
repeated assertion of the proprietors, who also own the saw and 



PALM A. SOLA. 



planing mills adjacent, that they build houses and furnish them 
complete, to the cradle that rocks the baby and the condensed milk 
that nourishes it, for be it known that in this country with its 
thousands of cattle ranging the woods at large, milk, the genuine 
fresh article, is not to be had to drink. A few hundred feet from 
the wharf and warehouses on a high bluff overlooking Manatee Bay 
to the east, and across Tampa Bay and the blue waters of the Gulf 
of Mexico to the west, stands a comfortable but comparatively small 
hotel, with breezy porches and an air of home comfort about its 
exterior that is fully realized by the traveler when his room is 
assigned him, and the neat new furniture and perfect spring beds 
have for a day or a night been his. Clustered about the hotel are a 
number of cottages, varying in size to suit the wants of their occu- 
pants, most of whom are employees of the mills and other enter- 
prises of the present owners of Palma Sola. So much for a general 
description of the present appearance of the town that is called on 
the title page the youngest and largest town in the State. Youngest 
at this date, being chartered as a town August ist, 1884, and largest 
as it contains within its corporate limits over twenty square miles, 
or a little over 1 3,000 acres, embracing within its limits Palma Sola 
Bay and Pereco Islands, and having a shore line on Manatee, Palma 
Sola and Sarasota Bays over twenty-two miles long. 

Its northern boundary, the south bank of Manatee Bay, is in 
latitude 27 31' north and longitude 82 p 37' west. 

Referring to the map which accompanies this pamphlet it will 
be seen that the Palma Sola Company owns the entire peninsula 
between Sarasota Bay and the Manatee River, of which peninsula it 
can be safely said that no portion of the State of Florida can be 
found north of Charlotte Harbor, which is so entirely exempt from 
the destructive action of frost as this. Looking at the general map 
of the State, it will be seen that it projects well out from the other- 
wise straight shore line into the Gulf, and its perfect surrounding of 
deep salt water bays, whose temperature is always high, gives it a 
protection from cold winds that is unequaled. Referring to Lieut. 
Maury's charts of ocean currents, it will be seen that the great Yuca- 
tan current, which pours its flood of hot equatorial waters into the 
Gulf Stream, circles and bends close into the shore at Tampa Bay, 
diffusing its warm vapors over this favored section. Across, from bay 



b PATjMA sola. 

to bay, upon the east boundary of the corporation, the company has 
built an impregnable barbed wire fence, which is proof against 
hogs and cattle, and by an action at the first meeting of its Town 
Council it is made a misdemeanor and cause of action for damages 
for a resident of the town to allow stock of any kind to run at large 
within its limits. 

Thus the town fences out cattle, and each settler is saved the 
very great and unsatisfactory expense of barricading his individual 
grounds. The wisdom and value of this general fence is very 
strikingly endorsed by the statistics of the last census, which shows 
that the value offences in our entire State are eight times the value 
of the stock, and that the cost of maintaining them is something 
more than double the value of the stock yearly. 

Here a little over five and one-half miles offence extended into 
deep water in both bays protects with the aid of the ordinance over 
twenty square miles of land, the subdivisions of which have been 
carefully and accurately marked by the company with permanent 
stones at the corners, precluding the possibility of future disputes as 
to boundaries. 

The patents for these lands, having come direct from the State 
and United States Governments to the present owners by direct cash 
purchase will be sufficient evidence to the careful buyer that his title 
will be good. In this part of Florida none of the Spanish grants, 
which are a fruitful source of litigation on the Eastern Coast, were 
ever made. 

Before buying land and building ahome, the settler asks, What 
can I do to make a living? and, looking around,, he finds a large 
number of people employed in milling with room for many more 
at fair compensation, opportunities for carrying on merchandise 
business, good openings for every trade and profession, and, if his 
tastes are for a "Life on the Ocean Wave,'' employment is offered 
in all its occupations. Within the past year a new enterprise has had 
birth here that now promises to grow to giant proportions. With 
the establishment of an ice-house it became possible to save and 
send the fish, with which the waters are literally alive, to the great 
cities of the South and North. The business was at once opened, 
and at the close of the first season the ice-packers had profitably 
shipped many tons of mullet, redfish, sheepshead and pompano. 



PALMA SOLA. 7 

At this date large packing-houses are in course of construction for 
the accommodation of a business that, during the coming season, 
will figure up towards $100,000. 

Within forty miles of Palma Sola are the great sponge banks of 
Florida, from which hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth are 
annually taken and shipped to New York. The rapid development 
of the resources of all new countries calls for an unusual amount of 
hard labor, and it is so particularly the case here that no assurance 
need be given to any that want work that they can find plenty to do, 
Up to this date the great difficulty has been with every business 
enterprise to find labor enough to carry it on. 

In answer to the natural question of the intending settler: 
" What will it cost to get there, and how shall I go ?" the following 
rate sheets are given from New York, and are the same for the Mal- 
lory Line, via Fernandina, and the Ocean Steamship Company, via 
Savannah. By the latter company the traveler will be ticketed via 
Jacksonville and the St. John's River to Sanford, thence by Tampa 
and boat to Palma Sola. 

PASSENGER RATES BETWEEN NEW YORK AND POINTS ON GULF COAST. 



To or From 


Straight. 


Excursion. 


Cabin. | St'age. 


Cabin. 




31 00 
31 50 
33 60 

36 50 

40 50 
36 50 


l'J 25 
19 75 
21 25 

23 25 

24 25 
23 25 


51 mi 




52 00 




54 00 








61 00 








65 00 




61 0! 











Children between 4 and 12 years of age half fare. 150 lbs. baggage free to each 
adult passenger. Extra baggage 75 cents per 100 lbs. between Fernandina and New York. 
Usual rates on railroads. 



8 



PALMA SOLA. 



On his household goods and gods the following rate will 
apply by either line. 



THE MALLORY 

LINES or 
OCEAN S. S. CO. 

and 
SAVANNAH, F. 

and 
WESTERN R.R. 



Rates from New 
York to 



PalmaSola 153 131 1 18 



RATES PER ONE HUNDRED POUNDS. 



G 



60 50*75 



a H a , 

r^ 2 ■' 

a-^ ° 
III 



2 * 

3 W 



«a 53 
» a = 



flap, 



PER BBL. 



n_5 w^j 

'"S a a -3 

° 5 5 

PS o 



* P 1° 



G Veg 
90 1 35' 90 



The following rate sheet gives the cost of getting productions 
back to the great Northern markets, and will be considered low 
enough surely: 

Through Rates on Vegetables, via the Atlantic Coast Line, in 
Effect March 25th, 1884. 

























ni 


o 


3 






0> 


<9 J* *■ 






a 


ac 


•j 


§ 




§ 


a 5 S 
o S 9 


FROM 


O 
H 


a 


a) 


2 


4) 


o 


T3 
p 


ichm 
eters 
ortsn 






m 

Per 




a 


ta 


pa 


Ph 


M (^ a 




Per 


Per 


Per 


Per : Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 






Box 

60 


Bbl. 
1 10 


Box 

60 


Bbl. 
1 10 


Box 
60 


Bbl. 

1 10 


Box 

65 


Bbl. 
1 25 


Box 


Bbl. 


Tampa and Palina Sola. 


60 


1 10 



So much for the expense of reaching Palma Sola. The land 
for an orange grove can be bought at from $5.00 per acre to $25.00, 
according to location, the value being varied more by position with 
regard to the business centre than by the varied qualities of the soil. 
The rich hammock lands, suitable for the production of early vege- 
tables for the Northern markets, range much higher in values, $20 
per acre being about the lowest price at which any could now be 
bought, and $50 has been paid. These prices may sound high for 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 9 

wild lands, upon which an expenditure of from $30 to $50 more 
per acre must be made before they can be cultivated, but a compar- 
ison of their net yield with that of the lands of the Northern wheat 
or corn grower shows that here $200 is taken from an acre where 
there the average yield may be safely placed at $14. These fig- 
ures leave nothing more to be said. 

The cost of living may be put down at the same figure as in 
any of the medium sized cities, /ess the expense of rents, fuel, fine 
clothing and amusements ; however large or small a part of the in- 
come these items may appropriate can be readily saved at Palma 
Sola. 

The mild climate makes an expensive house unnecessaiy, fuel 
is to be had for the expense only of gathering it, and thus far the 
necessity has not arisen for expenditures that in the city resident's 
expense account book should properly appear as " paid for keep- 
ing up appearances." 

Looking the whole field over it will be found that living ex- 
penses may be kept very low, while income from the various occu- 
pations that may be engaged in can be made large. (That depend- 
ing here, as elsewhere, upon the individual). No more favorable 
conditions for success can be found anywhere. The Palma Sola 
Land Company, owning the entire peninsula, as described on the 
fifth page, is advertising its lands extensively and offering every 
possible inducement to intending settlers to locate here. To this 
end acres of its lands have not been advanced to keep pace with 
the prices of other adjacent lands that are being sold much higher. 

It is the plan of the Company to reinvest the proceeds of all 
sales of land for some years in the improvement of avenues and 
streets, planting strawberries, making orange groves, etc. 

The Company will also contract with non-residents for the 
clearing of lands, planting orange groves, and the care of them so 
long as is necessary. A strong colony from Taunton, Mass., is 
now improving a large tract in this way under the Company's care, 
and investors in orange groves, who from any cause cannot give 
their personal attention to the business, will find this a reliable 
means of establishing it. 

As a possible aid to the selection of an occupation here the fol- 
lowing article on Tropical Fruits may prove of interest. 



TROPICAL FRUITS IN FLORIDA. 



This excellent and reliable little treatise on this subject was 
prepared by the Florida Land and Improvement Co , and an- 
swers so many of the questions put by correspondents that it 
has been included in this pamphlet. All of the fruits named 
in it find a place adapted to their growth in Palma Sola, un- 
troubled by the light frosts that sometimes injure them in local- 
ities only a little further north. The infinite value of such a 
location over another where the same conditions do not exist, 
and where the fruit grower sees the result of his labor of years 
destroyed in a night, cannot be over-estimated, the relation of 
the figures being as nought (or worse) to one. This matter of 
location cannot be too carefully considered by the Florida 
settler, for on it depends entirely his success or failure. Money 
spent in carefully and intelligently looking the State over is 
well expended and results most frequently in the conviction 
that the Gulf Coast is superior in climate, character of lands, 
coast harbors and future prospects. This conclusion being 
reached, the choice of location is narrowed down from the great 
area of a great state to the narrow limits of the Coast line, 
Following that line down to Tampa Bay, and particularly to the 
Manatee River, more conditions are found favorable to certain 
success in fruit growing and the production of early vegetables 
than are to be found elsewhere. The facts and figures as given 
by Dr. Levis in this book are conclusive affirmative evidence 
for this statement. 



ORANGE -CULTURE. 

The subject of orange-growing in Florida is one on which 
we often have inquiries addressed to us, and we therefore give 
additional facts on the much-debated question of the cost and 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORID A. 11 

profit of orange-growing, for which the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture is authority. From barely nothing, in a 
commercial sense, at the close of the war, the business has grown 
to be worth over $1,000,000. Measured by the progress of the 
past, it is destined to become, in a short time, one of the leading 
industries of the State. Last year there were exported at least 
45,000,000 oranges. The business so far has been very success- 
ful, and is daily inviting more capital and enterprise. There 
are already $10,000,000 invested in orange groves in the State, 
with a field open for the profitable employment of $50,000,000 
more. Lands suitable for growing oranges are in abundance at 
low prices. Orange groves can be found in almost every part 
of the State, and on all varieties of soil well drained, the groves 
numbering each from 10 to 10,000 trees. Hardly a family, out- 
side of the cities, but cultivates a greater or less number of 
orange trees, and many residing in the cities do the same. 
Some of the largest groves in the State are owned by persons 
living in the towns, or non-residents. In some of the counties 
there were raised as high as from 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 of or- 
anges last year; and narrow-gauge r railroads are rapidly being 
built to afford the middle counties facilities for shipping their 
enormous crops to market. Three such roads have been com- 
pleted within the. past few months, and others are projected, 
while more are under contemplation. Oranges are shipped by 
these roads to New York in eight}' and ninety hours' time. 
Within the past few years orange-culture in Florida, has attained 
great perfection. It has reached that position where it is 
possible to analyze the cost of production. Abundant evidence 
exists that can be brought forward to show the value and profit 
in it. For the investment of capital, results have shown that 
there is not at present any pursuit, where the tilling of the 
ground is involved, that will yield larger returns with less 
fluctuation. It is always pleasant to be able to confirm such 
statements with facts. An extensive orange-grower in Putnam 
county has kept, from the beginning of his grove, an accurate 
account of the expenditures and receipts to the close of the 
thirteenth year, ending in 1879. The number of trees was 
three hundred. The} r yielded 442, 000 oranges selling for 



12 TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 

$7,590, against an expenditure, omitting cost of land, first cost 
of trees, and'interest on the money, of $1,950. This gives re- 
ceipts over expenditures, $5,640. This is only one instance, but 
it is as good as many, because it is only one in a very large 
number. It conclusively demonstrates that orange-culture is 
not at all transitory, nearly all the obstacles in the path of 
orange-culture having been removed. The future of the busi- 
ness is still more promising. Florida oranges are conceded to 
be superior to all others. In point of numbers, compared to 
the great quantities consumed, they are few, yet by their greater 
merit they have come to occupy the foremost place in the 
market. The genial and peculiar soil of Florida, together with 
the sufficiently warm sun to mature and concentrate the juices 
without destroying the lively aromatic flavor of the fruit, im- 
part this quality-value nowhere else attainable to such an extent. 
The field they are yet to occupy is practically illimitable. They 
are yet to possess our own market, the best in the world. This 
will be the labor of years, and after a great portion of our 
orange lands have been brought under cultivation. In 1879 there 
were 257,009,000 oranges entered at the port of New York from 
foreign countries. Double the number, at least, were entered 
at all the other ports, making a grand total of 771,000,000 con- 
sumed in and lost on the voyage to this country, in addition 
to our Florida crop. We cannot predict when the domestic 
will take the place of the foreign product, but it is inevitable 
in the course of time. Our inability to supply the demand is 
the main obstacle. That this will be the ultimate result is clear 
from another cause, independent, or nearly so, of merit. The 
liability of loss and damage resulting from uncertainties of a 
sea voyage, form an important factor in the conduct of the 
foreign fruit trade, serving to make it extremely hazardous, 
a circumstance against which dealers do not have to 
contend in the shipment of Florida oranges. We have rail- 
roads leading to all the great markets of America, and 
when the fruit is transported by water, all facilities are 
afforded by perfect and commodious steamers. Orange-culture, 
therefore, may go on indefinitely in Florida, without fear of 
reaching a general redundance of product. When our own 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 18 

market is occupied, those of Europe and elsewhere will be open 
to us. The growing desire everywhere for semi-tropical fruits, 
which the efforts of producers are trying to satisfy, is unlimited, 
and therefore efforts in orange-culture can continue to be put 
forth until this unlimited and independent desire is met — a 
goal which, perhaps, never can be reached. 

To persons of foresight and capital, who are looking to the 
future rather than the present for remunerative returns, Florida 
presents, in her orange pursuits, the most extended as well as 
the most inviting field. But aside from the question of profit, 
the culture of oranges presents other practical advantages. It 
is not only a pleasing but an independent occupation. Its pur- 
suit is no dead-level or monotonous exertion, but one that affords 
scope for the development of an ingenious mind. As to profit, 
the orange-grower is working under conditions of constantly in- 
creasing advantages. Young men, sometimes w-ith little or no 
capital, are starting every year in the business, often away from 
communities of old and experienced growers, and have suc- 
ceeded by dint of tact and industry. In point of regular 
profits ; in point of an industrious, frugal and cheerful occupa- 
tion ; in point of a very general desire to become independent ; 
in point of repressive and adverse inliuences- in other pursuits, 
they have found orange -culture, in its practical working, the 
most pleasing occupation. Persons who own orange groves in 
Florida are entirely well satisfied, as a rule, with their invest- 
ments. A bearing grove is worth a great deal of money, and to 
purchase one would require a large cash outlay. In ten years' 
time groves are usually in full bearing — often in less time — and 
the inducement to plant one is very great. 

LEMONS. 

The lemon grows well on our sandy soils, and ranks next 
to the orange in profit. It has the advantage over the orange 
of coming into bearing sooner. The orange bears in eight to 
ten years from the seed, while the lemon has fruit in four years, 
The few fruit-growers who have been far-sighted enough to 
plant lemon groves, are now reaping the benefit of their fore- 
sight. The fruit is quoted, and actually sells for as much as the 



14 TEOPTCAIj PRODUCTIONS OF FJiOKTDA. 

orange, and after beginning to bear requires far less care and 
attention. It is capable of standing- nearly as much cold as the 
orange, but fruits best where the climate is mild. Experiments 
have demonstrated that the lemon will not produce its like from 
the seed, while the orange in most instances will. The lemon 
should be budded. One of the largest fruit -dealers in New 
York, writing on the lemon, says: " The best lemons we get here 
are those from Florida, because, in the first place, they are nat- 
urally splendid lemons, and in the second place, the distance 
they have to come is so short that they arrive in perfect condi- 
tion. I paid two years ago as high as $12.00 a box for Florida 
lemons. They were of extra fine quality, of course, for there 
were other Florida lemons sold at the same time for $3.00 and 
$4.00 per box, but the fact that they could command such a 
price is an indication of the possibilities before the lemon- 
growers of Florida. They can practically run out Italy in 
time if they will only take care in growing, sorting and pack- 
ing, and send to New York the best lemons. The Florida 
lemons are packed in boxes holding from 250 to 350 each. 
They are shipped about November. " 

One jDrominent fruit-grower of Orange county, about three 
years ago, budded" from a fine variety of Sicily lemon. This 
winter he shipped 1,000,000 lemons; next year he will market 
3,000,000, with an annual increase thereafter. His lemons 
are picked and shipped after they mature, and command one 
dollar a box in advance of the hnest imported lemons on the 
market. 

LIMES 

There is not a more useful and acceptable fruit grown in 
the State than the lime. It is produced very successfully on 
our shell hammock and pine land in the southern counties 
flourishing best where cold weather never visits. It comes to 
maturity and bears even sooner than the lemon, having fruit in 
three years from planting the seed. Limes are attracting con- 
siderable attention in the Northern market, where they are es- 
teemed superior to the lemon, containing more acid, and being 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OP FLORIDA. 15 

better shippers. Some shipments have proved very remunera- 
tive, the fruit selling for 30 cents per dozen in quantity. 

The " piclded lime " is regarded as one of the best appeti- 
zers and anti-bilious tonics known. It is prepared as follows : 
The lime is plucked, when just ripe, a barrel is filled with them 
and closed up. Through the bung as much ordinary sea-water 
is poured upon them as the barrel will hold, and allowed to re- 
main for twenty-four hours, the water is then poured off and 
replaced by a fresh supply of sea-Avater, which is allowed to 
remain another twenty-four hours and then poured of. Fill 
the barrel a third time in this way with sea-water, close the 
bung and the limes are then ready for use and shipment as 
" pickled limes." The lime requires very little cultivation, and 
is almost entirely exempt from the diseases to which the other 
members of the citrus family are liable. 

CANE. 

The soil best adapted to the cultivation of cane is a moist 
black loam underlaid with clay or marl, large areas of which 
are found among the prairies owned by this Company in the 
Kissimmee and Caloosahatchie Valleys, which are pronounced 
by experienced sugar raisers from Louisiana and Cuba to be 
unsurpassed in the world. They have an average depth of 
three feet of rich vegetable mold, with a subsoil of white clay. 
The cane is planted continuously in drills six feet apart, and 
yields its largest crop the subsequent years, but requires re- 
planting every seven years for best results. It lives the year 
round in this section, and "goes to tassel," as the saying is, 
every year, reaching a length of seventeen feet in a season. 

To those who have watched the development of the re- 
sources of Florida, it is apparent that sugar is the " king" field 
product of the State, and with the developments now making it 
will be but a comparatively short period until a large percentage 
of the sugar and molasses consumed in the United States will 
be drawn from the rich soils of the Peninsular State. Of all the 
districts in the Union adapted to the cultivation of sugar-cane, 
no region is so favored in soil and climate as Florida — the soil 



16 TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 

of the rich bottom lands being admirably fitted to the maturing 
of cane crops. It is no extravagant statement to say that many 
hundreds of thousands of acres are here awaiting development. 
Sugar-cane is grown on the pine-lands with good results, where 
a little attention is given to cow-penning or fertilizing. The 
climatic conditions are most favorable in South Florida for the 
production of the crop ; no danger is to be apprehended from 
frost, which in these latitudes has never been known to injure 
the cane crop. Here the cane matures and perfects its seed, 
even when grown for years on the same land without manure. 
It is customary to replant sugar-cane every two or three 
years in the more northern sugar-belts of the country. Sugar- 
cane readily responds to frequent cultivation and fertilization, 
however, in the southern portion of this State. It is no un- 
common circumstance to see good stands of cane that have rat- 
tooned from six to ten years. On the chores of Lake Worth 
cane was recently seen growing that had not been replanted 
since the Seminole wars. 

The cost of fencing, plowing and planting the first cane 
crop upon these prairie lands averages about fifty dollars per 
acre. The soil is inexhaustible, and needs no fertilizer. The 
net profits the second year easily amount to eighty dollars per 
acre, and many growers realize much higher profits. 

COCOANUTS. 

The entire coast line of Monroe county will in a few years 
become a vast cocoanut grove, both climate and soil being spe- 
cially adapted to their growth. The prevailing type of country 
is a low sandy plain or prairie, where the cocoanut is found to 
grow and thrive luxuriantly, little or no care being required be- 
yond the original planting. Single, scattered trees are to be 
found all along the coast, where they appear to have sprung 
spontaneously from seed-nuts which have been washed ashore. 
Trees are found on the Keys, at Cape Sable and among the 
islands in Charlotte Harbor; in fact all along the coast range for 
three hundred miles. 

Bearing groves are found throughout the county. Groves 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 17 

are now bearing upon or near Key West island, at Plantation 
Key in the reef range, and at Charlotte Harbor. Major Evans 
has a grove in his garden at Myers, upon the Caloosahatchie, 
which produces 300 or more nuts per tree annually. He gathers 
bundles of twenty, twenty -five and even thirty-four nuts each, 
and trees are blooming and bearing all the year round, and 
this seems to be the average production of fully developed trees 
in South Florida. 

It is but recently that this industry has received much at- 
tention. The cultivation of cocoanuts, like that of pine-apples, 
is still in its infancy here, but astonishing figures can be shown, 
cousidering the brief time which has elapsed since its com- 
mencement. Captain Henry Geiger was the pioneer, and his 
grove at Boca Chica, near Key West, is now bearing — the inter- 
est of farmers and enterprising capitalists was soon attracted to 
this industry, and during the past few years all the available 
lands in this immediate vicinity have been secured and planted, 
and the work is still progressing and extending to the mainland 
with marvelous rapidity. Three hundred and twenty-five thou- 
sand trees are now planted and growing within the limits of 
Monroe county, of which fifty thousand were set out last j^ear. 
These are mostly upon the line of keys from Cape Florida to 
Key West. Cocoanut planting became a " boom " and soon 
reached the Gulf coast, where extensive groves have been 
planted at Horseman's Key, Caximbas, Horr's Island, Marco, 
Myers and CLarlotte Harbor, and are all doing well, exceeding 
even the sanguine hopes of their proprietors. 

To show the general feeling and future prospect, one gentle- 
man has purchased a tract of land at Caximbas, and contracted 
for 30,000 seed-nuts ; and at the present moment a vessel has 
just arrived in Key West harbor, with a cargo of 120,000 
nuts, to be planted at Biscayne by a colony recently started. 
I his is but an installment, as they are even now negotiating for 
30,000 more nuts, and will in all probability not stop short of 
200,000 trees. Others are planting largely along the lower 
Caloosahatchie Valley with a view to equally large transactions, 
and it is a question of but a very short time when the desolate 
monotony of these silent and hitherto practically unknown shores 



18 TROPICAL, PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 

will be supplanted by the tropical beauty and magnificence of 
an almost continuous cocoanut grove. Nature lias done her part 
and is quietly waiting, and human energy and capital is alone 
needed for a long time wilderness to spring into active and 
profitable life. The annual profit on a cocoanut grove may be 
safely reckoned at $3 per tree, and one hundred trees to the acre. 
The trees come into bearing at from six to eight years of age. 

It is admitted by all experienced growers that the cocoanut 
does best on a moist, sandy soil near salt water, but they can be 
raised on land removed from the coast, if salt is applied to the 
ground around the trees after they become three years old. 

They should be planted as follows : Place tho ripe nuts 
about four inches under the soil, and about twenty feet apart. 
Care should be taken to plant the nut with the end that is at- 
tached to the stem downward, as the milk inside of the nut will 
then cover the eye and germinate the young sprout that pro- 
duces the tree. 

The tree should make its appearance above ground in from 
six months to one year after planting the seed. 

THE BANANA. 

The banana is not property a tree, but a plant of leafy 
succulent growth, of the genus Mum. The stalk is formed of the 
stems of the leaves in concentric layers, reaching with its leaves, 
a height of fifteen or twenty feet, and eight to ten inches in 
thickness, and contains no woody fibre. From the center comes 
the first bearing stem, which turns and grows downward. The 
end has the appearance of an ear of corn with purple shuck. This 
unfolds one leaf at a time, displaying two rows — eight to twelve 
each — of tiny, little fruit, with their delicate blossoms, until it 
attains a length of two or three feet, covered with fruit. The 
leaves are a marvel for size and appearance, sometimes reaching 
a length of six feet, and eighteen inches in width, of a glossy 
pea green. The root is perennial. It is large and fleshy, some- 
times of the size of a half bushel measure, from which jyut forth 
numerous rootlets, half an inch in diameter. From the main 
root are constantly springing numerous suckers, which go to 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 19 

form new plants. This being its mode of propagation, these 
suckers can be taken off to form a new plantation, or remain, as 
may be wanted. 

There are several varieties of banana, among which is the 
dwarf. This plant rarely attains a height of more than seven 
feet, is readily cultivated in the southern portion of the State 
but is too delicate to be safely propagated in the upper tier of 
counties. The fruit is noted for its large size and delicate flavor 
and is in demand. At Lake Worth a plantation of bananas has 
been successfully cultivated for years. 

In a suitable soil, which should be rich and moist, and in 
a tropical climate, it requires about one year to mature fruit, 
* from the first appearance of the plant. Each stock bears but 
one bunch of fruit. When it is gathered, the stock is cut down. 
Ten feet apart is a good distance to plant them. This gives 
over 400 per acre, and the second year there will be six or 
eight plants to each hill, and soon occupy most of the ground. 
After the first year they require but little cultivation, the old 
stalk and leaves acting as mulch and manure. Under favorable 
conditions there is no cessation of growth. New plants and 
ripe fruit are found at all times, and a plantation once started 
lasts for years. 

It is probable that no fruit was ever cultivated that will 
yield more fruit per acre, or result in greater profit to the 
owner, where there is a market for it. It is easily and cheaply 
gathered, requiring no packages, and bears handling and trans- 
portation well. Three bunches a year per hill is a fair estimate 
for the yield of a good plantation. This would give over 1,200 
bunches per acre. Many of these will contain over 100 bananas 
each. It is a favorite food in tropical countries, and always in 
demand at the seaport towns for shipment. There are some 
people, no doubt, who live onbanauas.alone; but it is not prob- 
able that any amount of work can be got out of a dozen of that 
fruit a day. Southern Florida and some of the islands on its 
coast have proved to be suitable and profitable for the culture of 
the banana, and instances are mentioned where the receipts 
have been over $3,000 per year from a single acre, including 
plants sold. 



20 TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OP FLORIDA. 

PINE-APPLE. 

The cultivation of this most delicious fruit is becoming one 
of the leading industries of South Florida. 

Fully 300 acres are now under cultivation in Monroe 
county, and the area is being constantly increased as fast as the 
land can be cleared and the slips can be procured from which 
they are propagated. The area devoted to this business in 
Monroe is confined principally to Key Largo and the adjacent 
keys, where the enterprise was originally started, but the farm- 
ers in Manatee and the mainland of Monroe are now turning 
their attention to this industry, and large fields have been 
planted in several of the southern counties. Those already * 
started are reported in excellent condition, and the outlook for 
rapid increase is exceedingly promising. We cite a few figures 
which have been obtained from accurate information about Key 
Largo and vicinity. The shipments of pine-apples to Northern 
markets have been about as follows: In 1881, 30,000 dozen; in 
1882, 75,000 dozen, and last year, 150,000 dozen. An acre of 
land set out in pine slips will produce 8,000 pine-apples, the 
average price of which, when ready for shipping, is $1.00 per 
dozen. The Largo pines are already well known, and those 
which have been produced upon the mainland demonstrates 
fully that the pine lands of South Florida are well adapted to 
the production of strong, healthy plants, and a sweet, fine qual- 
ity of fruit. 

The pine-apple is propagated from slips and suckers; the 
former are taken from the base of the matured pine-apple — each 
pine producing from five to seven slips. The suckers grow up 
from the root of the plant, and after being removed and dried 
stand shipment very well. An excess of moisture in slips and 
suckers when shipped in quantity is detrimental: in this condi- 
tion they are liable to deteriorate. After planting, the slips will 
produce fruit in from eighteen months to two years. The suck- 
ers fruit in one year under favorable conditions. Pine-apples 
require but little attention; their luxuriant growth soon shades 
the ground, preventing the growth of weeds and rapid evapora- 
tion of moisture. 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OP FLORIDA. 21 

Experienced growers express themselves fully satisfied 
with their present success, and are going into the business 
largely. 

EICE. 

Both the lowland and upland varieties of this most useful 
grain are grown successfully and profitably in Florida. On the 
rich hammock lands of the interior of the State, and the stiff 
pine lands of the South, upland rice of the best quality is raised 
by small planters, while the rich valleys of the Kissimmee and 
Caloosahatchie will produce wonderful yields of the lowland, 
and this, too, without the irrigation which is regarded so essen- 
tial to its production in Georgia and South Carolina. It re- 
quires a moist soil, is sown in drills, and when kept clear of 
weeds will produce 30 to 100 bushels of rough rice to the 
acre. Rice is a standard article of food and is used in many 
manufacturing processes, and there is certainly no reason why 
its culture should not become at an early day one of the leading 
industries of this our " State of marvelous resources." 



GUAVAS. 

Guavas are grown all over South Florida with little culti- 
vation, and are the peaches of that section. For jellies, jams, 
pies, and to serve with cream they are the most delicious fruit 
that grows. When cooked or prepared in any of the ways in ' 
which we serve peaches at table one soon grows fond of them, 
and many people relish them eaten from the bush. In addition 
to its delicious flavor, the guava is a very healthy fruit. 

Little attention is given to the manufacture of " guava 
jelly," though it is confidently believed that it could be made 
immensely profitable in the southern counties, as the jelly is 
highly esteemed the world over. When cold-storage ware- 
houses and refrigerator-cars Lave been introduced, so that the 
guava can be sent to Northern markets, the demand will be very 
great. 



22 TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 

SUG AK- APPLE. 

This fruit grows on a shrub similar to the guava, and is 
also very tender and needs some protection from cold. The 
fruit is a rich yellowish green, and rough on the outside, but it 
is very rich and sweet, and while it is sui generis, it may be 
compared to a date in taste. This fruit does well south of 
latitude 28 degrees. 

THE MANGO 

is a rich and deliciously flavored fruit, larger than an egg, and 
nearly the same shape. It is a greenish yellow on the outside, 
and a bright yellow on the inside ; the pulp being somewhat 
fibrous or stringy ; it is best to pare and eat with a very sharp 
knife. It has a large, oblong, single seed, that is quite a curi- 
osity itself. There are several varieties, some of which are 
hardier than others and more prolific. It is said that the 
Persian, or East India variety, is most desirable for this State* 
They are at home on the sandy soils of South Florida, where 
they come into bearing in five years from planting the seed. 
The trees resemble the orange-tree in size and shape. They 
produce about 2,000 mangoes each, which are principally sold 
in Southern markets, and bring from $1.00 to $3.00 per 
hundred. 

THE AVOCADO PEAR, 

usually called " alligator pear," is a peculiar fruit, native to the 
West Indies. The fruit is very large, pear-shaped, and has a 
large, round kernel, or seed, in the center. The fruit, even 
when mature, is a dark green, sometimes shaded yellow, and 
the flesh is of the same color. The taste is peculiarly oily and 
pasty, and one must be educated to a relish for it. It is gen- 
erally eaten with salt, vinegar and pepper; as a salad, it is 
highly esteemed. The tree is a model of beauty, and grows to 
a large size on the shell hammocks and sandy soils of South 
Florida. It commences bearing five years from the seed. Will 
produce from 200 to 300 pears when eight years old, which are 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 23 

readily sold in Key West market at prices ranging from GO 
cents to $1.20 per dozen. 

The mango and alligator pear are growing and maturing 
their fruit at Point Pinellas, a peculiarly favored spot just 
west of Tampa Bay. This point, due to the water protection 
afforded by the waters of the Gulf, Hillsboro Bay and Tampa 
Bay, is as tropical in its conditions as points on the mainland 
one hundred and thirty miles further south, and presents un- 
usual attractions to those desiring an equable climate or a point 
for tropical fruits and early vegetable cultivation. Shaddocks, 
grape-fruit, sapadillos, sour-sops, Jamaica apples, pawpaws and 
dates are all grown to some extent in the southern counties, 
but there are not enough raised to create a demand in the 
market. 

VEGETABLE GROWING 

for Northern markets is destined to become a very important 
branch of business in the southern counties, on account of cli- 
mate and soil and nearness to market. We may say, without 
tedious detail, that any vegetable grown North as a summer 
vegetable can be produced and shipped from South Florida in 
any of the winter months. This industry was started in Monroe 
county in 1877, by a shipment of 16,000 crates of tomatoes to 
New York through the port of Key West. In 1878 there were 
25, 000 crates shipped through the same port. The first ship- 
ment of vegetables this season was made in December, and 
consisted of tomatoes and egg-plants in quantity. The tomatoes 
brought 60 cents a quart, and egg-plants $4.00 per dozen in 
New York. 

In the southern portion of the State, tomatoes, green peas, 
cucumbers, egg-plant, new potatoes, strawberries, watermelons, 
etc., may be seen growing side by side and in the same field in 
the month of December. The completion of new lines of railroad 
now building, in connection with water transportation, will afford 
facilities for placing these desirable garden products on the 
Northern table at a season when there will be no competition, 
and prices obtained will return a large profit. 



24 TEOPICAL PKODTTCTIONS OP FLORIDA. 

CASAVA AND COMPTIE. 

Starch and glucose can be more easily and profitably made 
from the casava and comptie than from any other plants known. 
But as the comptie could not be so easily, abundantly and profit- 
ably raised as the 

CASAVA, 

the latter would be the general crop. It produces more in 
weight and bulk to a given area than any other of the root 
family, often reaching, as we are reliably informed, forty tons to 
the acre; and this in turn yields a larger percentage of mer- 
chantable product than any of the bulbous plants, about 30 
per cent, of glucose or syrup, 40 per cent, of starch, and 10 per 
cent, of the residium tapioca, there being no waste but the thin 
rind. 

As a stock for the manufacture of starch, casava, in cheap- 
ness of production and yield per acre, is superior to any other 
field crop, with the added advantage that the tubers may remain 
in the ground after maturing and increase in weight very rapidly. 
About three thousand plants are set to the acre, and it is no un- 
usual circumstance to find roots of thirty to sixty pounds each. 
The crop may be gathered eight months after planting. There 
are several million of acres of land strictly adapted to this crop 
under our control. A company is now planting on the Gulf 
coast for the purpose of manufacture of glucose. 

STOCK RAISING. 

It is quite difficult, in the limits of a publication of this 
character, to discuss the best methods of stock raising. 

In all the southern counties are to be found large and small 
herds of cattle. These run at large through the pine woods, 
swamps and vast prairies of the Kissimmee and Caloosahatchie 
valleys, and thrive on the coarse pasturage in a manner quite 
remarkable aiid satisfactory to their owners, who " round-up " 
once a year, mark and brand the young calves, and give little 
other attention to them. 



TEOriCAIi PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 25 

So little expense attends this sort of stock raising that, not- 
withstanding the small size of the cattle produced, they prove 
most profitable for shipment to the Cuban markets. Indeed, the 
hide and tallow of a five-year-old steer would return a good 
profit on the cost of his keeping. The cattle are not so large as 
those grown in Texas, because less attention has been given here 
to improving the native breeds of stock. The cattle raised in 
Florida are small, with thick heavy necks and fore parts and 
narrow loins; but when fat a four -year-old when dressed will 
weigh from 400 to 500 pounds. 

The buyers in the Cuban markets (to which shipments are 
made to the extent of 50,000 head per year), prefer Florida to 
Texas beef. The grasses in the southern counties are more nutri- 
tious, and seem to impart a more agreeable llavor to the flesh than 
in the northern part of Florida. That this business pays well has 
this practical proof : More money has been made in stock 
raising in South Florida than any other enterprise in the State 
until quite recently, and a number have thus grown wealthy 
from their herds. The improving of our breeds of cattle and 
proper experiments with the grasses which may be grown suc- 
cessfully here, will make stock raising in Florida as general as 
it is profitable, and will give a value to a vast area in the State 
now practically a wilderness. 

To enumerate in detail the varied crops and products of 
this country would be beyond the province of this paper. Crops 
indigenous to all parts of America may be safely- grown (except- 
ing in the case of a few of the cereals) with less care and labor 
in their cultivation and production ; besides, in many cases the 
soil can be replanted the same year. The region represented by 
our companies presents the advantage of a tropical and semi- 
tropical climate. It is the region where many of the products 
of both the temperate and tropical climes maybe found growing- 
side by side — where the orange, lemon, lime, guava, fig, etc., and 
all the garden vegetables may be grown for profit in the open 
air the year round. It is where cotton, sugar-cane, rice, tobacco 
and all Southern field crops pay best. 

Large orange groves are being set out yearly, and the pro- 
duction from those in bearing returns handsome incomes to their 



26 TKOPICAIi PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 

owners. In tins region frost rarely comes, and every fruit, flower, 
hrub, plant or product that grows in any semi-tropical or trop- 
ical region of the world matures or can be produced. Here one 
may behold trees in rapid and perennial growth, forests and 
fields spread with a rich vegetation, and roses in full bloom at a 
period when the Northern States are wrapped in snow. 

This is the region in which to seek the benefits of a summer 
climate during the winter months. Although the winters are so 
mild, the summers do not bring the tropical heat which might 
be expected, and parties now permanently residing here, after 
several years' experience, assert that they do not suffer more in 
summer than they did in their old homes in the North. Any 
person accustomed to exposure, North or South, can do ordinary 
farm work during the summer without fear of ill-effect from the 
heat. The thermometer rarely rises above ninety degrees. 

Official records show the average temperature of Florida 
to be — summer, seventy-eight; winter, sixty degrees. 

The daily ocean breezes in summer modify the heat. The 
Gulf breeze coming in with the setting sun cools the air at night. 

Official sanitary reports, both of scientific bodies and the 
army, show that Florida stands first in health, although in the 
reports are included a transient population, many of whom take 
refuge here as invalids in the lowest stage of disease. 

The flow of immigration already so great to the " Far West " 
is settling in upon these lands, so much more advantageously 
located for marketing products, and possessing superior adapta- 
bility to the profitable pursuit of a pleasing agriculture. 

The influx of population will rapidly advance the price of 
these lands in the hands of the husbandman, and the great va- 
riety of adaptation and products, with a ready access to the best 
markets of the world, will certainly work a large and more cer- 
tain return for labor and capital than in the frigid regions of the 
more Northern States. 

To complete this pamphlet on Trojfical Fruits, the follow- 
ing report of Inspector Bosfwick, of the New York Custom 
House, is appended. The utter fallacy of the idea, which is some- 
times expressed, that Florida will overstock the market for 
oranges, is made very apparent in ihis article. 



FOREIGN GREEN FRUIT. 



REVIEW OF THE TRADE DURING THE YEAR 1882. 



VARIETIES IMPORTED AND THE AMOUNT OF EACH VARIETY, TOGETHER 

WITH THE VALUE AND THE DUTY THEREON INSPECTOR 

bostwick's STATISTICS. 



In offering to the public the statistical review of the fruit 
trade at the port of New York for the year 1882, the fourteenth 
the writer has presented in as many consecutive years, it must 
be confessed at once that there will not be found therein any- 
thing of an unusual character, or anything calculated to spe- 
cially interest the general reader further than the knowledge of 
the gradually increasing importance of the trade may do. The 
traffic is one that possesses its full share of the uncertainties of 
commercial transactions. The perishable character of the fruit, 
and the chances of the sea voyage from the tropics are quite 
enough to account for this uncertainty. It should be stated, 
however, that the gradually increasing use of steamers in the 
place of sailing vessels is tending to reduce the chances for loss 
from the voyage. The trade in Mediterranean fruits for the 
last year shows a large increase over the trade of the year 1881, 
and from the detailed exhibit of the trade in green fruits gen- 
erally, as given herein, we learn that the most of the several 
kinds of fruit imported have also increased in number in the 
same time. The importation of bananas has doubled, but 
a striking offset is offered to this increase in the very notable 
decrease in the importation of oranges, probably the most com- 
monly used of all the imported fruits. Any deficiency in the 



28 TKOPICAX, PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 

receipt of this fruit seems, however, to have been partially made 
good from the orange growers of Florida, and perhaps the 
large supply from this source forms one of the most interesting 
facts stated in this paper, both on account of its present im- 
portance and its suggestions as to the future of the orange trade. 

MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT. 

The importation of Mediterranean fruit at the port of New 
York during the year 1882 consists of 120 cargoes by English 
steamers and 12 cargoes by Italian and Norwegian sailing ves- 
sels, and comprised 953,837 boxes and cases of oranges and 
1,052,871 boxes of lemons. On comparison of the above with 
the imports of 1881, the result shows an increase of 3 cargoes 
by steamers and a decrease of 3 cargoes by sailing vessels. The 
increase in the number of cargoes is represented by an increase 
of 134,614 boxes and cases of oranges and 192,633 boxes of 
lemons, and an increase of 18,049,570 oranges and of 63,568,890 
lemons in number. The total number of oranges imported in 
1882 was 244,270,290, of which 80,609,195 perished on the voy- 
age, equal to a loss of 33 per cent., and the total number of 
lemons imported in 1882 was 347,448,420, of which 69,489,684 
perished on the voyage, a loss of 20 per cent. 

GRAPES. 

The importation of grapes comprised 108, 797 barrels and 
10,667 half barrels, on which there was a loss of 25 per 
cent. Compared with the imports of 1881, there was an in- 
crease of 61,797 barrels and of 667 half barrels. 

ORANGES FROM THE WEST INDIES, CENTRAL AND 
SOUTH AMERICA. 

The importation of oranges from the West Indies consisted 
of 5 full cargoes and of parts of several cargoes of oranges by 
sailing vessels; and 83,587 barrels of oranges by 111 steamers. 
Of the above, 52,191 barrels were from Kingston, Jamaica, and 
comprised 18,446,650 oranges; from Havana, 8,866 barrels, com- 
prising 2,953,763 oranges; from Port Maria, 6,065 barrels, com- 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 29 

prising 2,120,950 oranges; from Jamaica, 5,029 barrels, com- 
prising 1,760,150 oranges; from Saniana, 4,608 barrels, com- 
prising 1,612,800 oranges; from Nassau, 1,924 barrels and 2 car- 
goes, comprising 1,095,050 oranges; from Dominica, 1 cargo and 
1,548 barrels, comprising 669,360 oranges; from Montego Bay, 
860 barrels, comprising 300,624 oranges; from Savana La-Mar, 
750 barrels, comprising 286,300 oranges; from Trinidad, 334 
barrels, comprising 116,900 oranges; from Port Antonio, 728 
barrels, comprising 263,800 oranges; from Black RiveiyMontan- 
zas, St. Jago, Aricibo, Port au Prince, Para, Lucia, 694 barrels, 
comprising 244,000 oranges; from Ponce, P. R., 1 cargo, com- 
prising 273,900 oranges; from Ma} r aguez, 1 cargo, comprising 
483,000 oranges; from Abaco, 1 cargo, comprising 200,000 
oranges ; from Porto Bico, part cargo, comprising 150, 000 
oranges ; from San Andreas, part cargo, comprising 72,000 
oranges ; from Baracoa, part cargoes, comprising 75,590 
oranges, making a grand total of 31, 160,587 oranges, of which 
11,217,811 perished on the voyage, a loss of 36 per cent. On 
comparison of the above with the imports of 1881, the result 
shows a decrease of 35,910 barrels, and of 13,456,325 oranges ; 
less than the imports of 1881, also a decrease of 4 sailing ves- 
sels, and an increase of (approximately) 99 steamers engaged 
in the trade. 

FLORIDA. 

A passing allusion here to the rapidly increasing production 
of oranges in Florida may not be thought amiss. The hun- 
dreds of thousands (it may be millions) of trees heretofore trans- 
planted are annually arriving at a bearing state, and a large 
crop of fine oranges the past season has amply rewarded the 
labor bestowed upon their cultivation. Perseverance and more 
experience will insure lasting results, so far as the permanence 
of the fruit growing industry is concerned, and constantly in- 
creasing returns to its promoters. The writer predicts that the 
products of the orange groves of Florida in a single decade 
will be sufficient to supply the whole United States with an 
abundance of fine oranges. About 200,000 boxes and barrels 
of oranges were shipped to this city this season from Florida 



30 TROPICAL. PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 

and found a ready market, and about 300,000 boxes and bar- 
rels of oranges were distributed through the West, South, and 
Southwest from the same source. 

The trade in West India oranges the past year proved both 
unsatisfactory and unprofitable. 

Amongst the principal inrporters in this city who are engaged 
in the fruit trade with the Island of Jamaica, and the West In- 
dies generally, are Messrs. Gomez & Pearsall, Mr. Joseph S. 
Johnson, Messrs. George H. Richardson & Co., Messrs. G. 
Wessels & Co., Mr. Aubrey G. Hutcheson, Mr. G. de Cordova, 
Messrs. William Douglass & Son, Mr. R McD. Kirldand, Mr. 
Joshua C. Cromwell, Mr. W. M. Hinton, Mr. J. F. Ferrier, Mr. 
John Marsh and Messrs. C. H. Griffin & Co. 

PINEAPPLES. 

The importation 'of pineapples from the West Indies the 
past year consisted of 30 cargoes by sailing vessels, and 15,033 
barrels by 81 steamers. Of the above 12,692 barrels were from 
Havana, and comprised 568, 610 pineapples; from Port Maria, 
247 barrels, comprising 10,460 pineapples; from St. Jago, 41 
barrels, and 22,596 pineapples in bulk, comprising in all 24,621; 
from Kingston, 816 barrels, comprising 40,807 pineapples; from 
Nassau, 2 cargoes and 897 barrels, comprising 229,748 pine- 
apples; from Port Antonio, 163 barrels, comprising 8,150 pine- 
apples and 9,804 in bulk; from Green Turtle Bay, 1 cargo, 
comprising 31,212 pineapples; from Eleuthera, 5 cargoes, com- 
prising 412,388 pineapples;, from Governor's Harbor, 4 cargoes, 
comprising 212,616 pineapples; from Abaco, 8 cargoes, com- 
prising 468,744 pineapples; from Cat Island, 10 cargoes, com- 
prising 528,672 pineapples ; from Montego Bay, Trinidad, 
Barbadoes, Corn Island (in bulk), and Curacoa, 189 barrels, 
comprising 9,488 pineapples; making a grand total of 2,555,320 
pineapples. 

On comparison of the above with the imports of 1881, the 
result shows a decrease of 3 cargoes by sailing vessels, an in- 
crease of 11 steamers engaged in the trade, also, an increase of 
1,062 barrels of pineapples, and 499,301 pineapples. The 
average loss on the above was 20 per cent. 



TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 31 

Amongst the principal importers engaged in the trade are 
Mr. Joseph S. Johnson, Mr. Aubrey G. Hutcheson, aud Messrs. 
Gomez & Pearsall. 

Probably few persons in this city are aware of the fact that 
nearly two millions of pineapples are annually canned or packed 
at the canning factories of Mr. Joseph S. Johnson at Eleuthera 
and Harbor Island, in the West Indies, about three-fourths of 
which find a market in this city and the residue in Europe. 

The annual production of pineapples in the State of Florida 
is gradually on the increase. Four cargoes, aggregating about 
a quarter of a million of fine pines, of superior quality, were re- 
ceived in this city the last season. 

BANANAS. 

The importation of bananas (mostly from the West Indies) 
the past year consisted of 146 cargoes by sailing vessels and 
cargoes and parts of cargoes by 99 steamers. Of the above, 
142 cargoes by sailing vessels and 7 hj steamers were from 
Baracoa, and comprised 388,859 bunches; from Port Antonio, 
286,912 bunches by 47 steamers and 4 sailing vessels; from Port 
Maria, 115,796 bunches by 20 steamers; from Montego Bay, 
42,952 bunches by 9 steamers; from Jamaica and Kingston, 
Samana, Belize ( Hon. ), Curacoa and Corn Island, 25,017 bunches 
by 6 steamers; from Colon, 39,140 bunches by 6 steamers: from 
Port Limon,* 20,994 bunches by 4 steamers; making a grand 
total of 919,670 bunches of bananas, showing an increase of 
495,389 bunches and an importation more than double the 
number imported in 1881. Of the above 147,227 bunches per- 
ished on the voyage, a loss of 16 per cent. 

Amongst the principal importers of bananas, in this city, 
importing mostly from the West Indies, are Messrs. Gomez & 

* Since the recent construction of the Costa Rica Railroad, seventy- 
one miles long, extending from Port Limon to Rio Scucio, through a fertile 
country abounding in banana plantations, and the recent renewed ap- 
preciation by the natives of the importance of the cultivation of the banana, 
and the present facilities for unloading the fruit directly from the cars 
along the side of the steamers, largely increased importations of bananas 
from Port Limon are confidently anticipated in the future. 
• 



32 TROPICAL PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 

Pearsall, Messrs. George H. Richardson & Co., Messrs. G. 
Wessels & Co., Mr. Aubrey, G. Hutcheson, Messrs. Wm. 
Douglass & Son and Mr. Edgar Tilton. 

The reasonable anticipations of the importers of West India 
bananas the past year were far from being realized. On the 
contrary a large amount of loss was sustained by those in the 
banana trade. 

ASPINWALL BANANAS. 

The importations of bananas from Aspinwall the past year 
consisted of 68 cargoes per steamer, of which 60 cargoes were 
imported by " The Frank Brothers Company," comprising 
■429,987 bunches bananas, and 8 cargoes by Messrs. George H. 
Richardson & Co., comprising 66,835 bunches, making a total 
of 496,822 bunches bananas, of which 84,459 bunches perished 
on the voyage, an average loss of 17 per cent. There was an 
increase of 7 cargoes, and of 35,861 bunches bananas over the 
imports of the previous year. The importers engaged in the 
Aspinwall trade are The Frank Brothers Co., Messrs. George 
H. Richardson & Co., and Messrs. G. Wessels & Co. 

COCOANUTS. 

Cocoanuts were imported from the following named places 
during the year in quantities as follows: From Baracoa, 6,079,- 
634; San Andreas, 1,863,837; San Bias, 2,048,186; Ruatan, 
596,691; Barcelona, 687,344; Aspinwall, 549,000; St. Jago, 
520,400; Porto Bello, 460,000; Blewfields, 572,000; Trinidad, 
198,258; Montego Bay, 205,700; Port Spain, 144,768; Kingston, 
201,725; Boco del Torro, Port Limon, Porto Rico, Port Antonio, 
La Guayra, Belize, Port au Prince, Greytown, Barbadoes, Corn 
Island, Curacoa, United States Columbia, Columbo, Aricibo, 
Maracaibo, Port Maria, Samana, Pernambuco, Guantanimo, Ja- 
maica, Nassau, Progresso, Truxillo, and Cienfuegos, in quantities 
aggregating 914,365 cocoanuts, making a grand total of 15,041,- 
507 cocoanuts, which comprised the cargoes and parts of car- 
goes of 217 sailing vessels and 72 steamers. Of the above, 
1,203,320 perished on the voyage, a loss of 8 per cent. 

On comparison of the above with the imports of 1881, 



TROPICAL, PRODUCTIONS OF FLORIDA. 33 

the result shows an increase of 4,GG2,678 cocoanuts over those 
of 1881. 

The principal importers of cocoanuts from Central and 
South America and Cuba are Messrs. George H. Richardson & 
Co., Messrs. G. Wessel & Co., Messrs. "William Douglass & Son, 
and Mr. Aubrey G. Hutcheson, and Messrs. Gomez & Pearsall, 
from Baracoa. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

The importations of limes comprised 1,987 barrels, on which 
there was a loss of 35 per cent.; 25,600 grape fruit, loss 10 per 
cent; 1,270 shaddocks, loss 10 per cent.; 74,150 mangoes, loss 
50 per cent; 15,115 plantains, loss 15 per cent. 

The value of green fruit entered for consumption at the 

port of New York from January 1, 1882, to December 31, 1882, 

is exhibited in the following table : 

Amount 
Varieties of Fruit. Pr. Ct. Value. f Duty. 

Oranges and Lemons 20 $3,853,007 $770,601.40 

Grapes 20 386.392 77,278.40 

Pineapples 20 102,693 20,522.60 

Bananas .,, 10 823,227 82,322.70 

Limes:, Shaddocks, Mangoes, Grape Fruit, 

Plantains, Sapodillas, Avocado Pears, 

Guavas, and several other varieties of 

fruit not specified, under the head of 

Miscellaneous 10 11,993 1,199.35 

Cocoanuts Free 353,502 

Total value and duty $5,530,734 $951,924.35 

A comparison of the value of green fruit imported into 
New York in 1881 with that, in 1882, shows an increase in 
value of $1,147,638, and of duty $189,518.36. 

The countries and islands from whence the foregoing varie- 
ties of fruit were imported are Mexico, Central America, Brit- 
ish, French and Danish West Indies, Cuba, San Domingo, 
Hayti, United States of Colombia, Venezuela, British Guiana, 
Brazil, England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and 
Sicily. 

J. H. Bostwick, 
U. S. Inspector of Customs. 
Burling Slip, New York, April, 1883. 



The following paper on the climate of the Gulf Coast of Florida 
so exactly describes that of Palma Sola that it has been included in 
this pamphlet with many thanks to the author: 



A WINTER CLIMATE FOR INVALIDS— 

THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 



By R. J. Levis, M. D. 



From The Continent. 

The season is at hand when those who, like the birds of sum- 
mer, take annually their flight southward, will bethinking of run- 
ning away from winter. There are many who seek genial airs and 
sunlit waters for pleasure only, others to escape from the chilling 
discomforts of winter ; and the great invalid corps, turning its back 
on cold and death when the leaves fall, makes its pilgrimage to 
sunny lands. 

In the choice of a climate for invalids in general, there are cer- 
tain health-giving factors which may be summed up as equability of 
temperature, purity of atmosphere and comparative dryness. 

I regard it as essential for most invalids that the temperature 
shall be such that they may be able to remain for an indefinite time 
out in the open air without discomfort, and to freely permit it to 
enter their apartments at all hours of the day and night. 

The general prevalence of bright, clear, sunny days, with the 
rarity of cloudiness and a light rainfall, are essentials of a winter 
health resort for lung diseases. The physiological, and specially 
the stimulating and eutrophic effects of sunlight on the human 



THE GTJIjF COAST OF FLOKIDA. 35 

system, are well recognized ; but, owing to the in-door habits of 
invalids, are too little regarded. 

The discomfort and depression produced by the prevalence of 
violent winds are familiar to most conditions of invalidism, and 
climates of continuous and moderate air-movements are found to 
be the most desirable. 

An atmosphere of varying electric conditions, with the conse- 
quent production of ozone, purifying the air and keeping it free 
from septic germs, is favorable. 

A dry soil of sand or gravel, which quickly absorbs and filters 
away the rainfall from its surface, and does not keep the air moist 
by evaporation, is an essential of a winter health resort for pulmon- 
ary affections. 

The salubrious atmosphere from extensive pine forests, with 
their ozone and antiseptic influences, should incline invalids to the 
choice of such proximity. 

Facility for sea-bathing, at a tolerable temperature throughout 
the winter, gives occupation and pleasure, and is an important ad- 
juvant in the treatment of some morbid conditions. 

As incipient and developing pulmonary tuberculosis, and in 
many other diseases prevalent among the dwellers in cities, it is 
essential that there shall be a change of habits from a sedentary to 
an out-door life, the region for a health resort should be one in 
which there are abundant opportunities for amusement or for 
agreeable and profitable work in the open air. In a region of 
country where open-air amusements can be varied by riding, hunt- 
ing and sailing, and where the scenery is an attractive blending of 
vistas of forests and stretches of water, the conditions most favor- 
able to an out-door life will be most happily presented. 

The poorly- nourished victim of tuberculosis should not be 
banished to a land where his diet may be impoverished by the lack 
of fresh meat and vegetables. If he is where he can add to his fare 
by the products of his recreations of hunting and fishing, then will 
good digestion be most likely to wait on appetite. 

Agreeable society is an essential of happiness and a preventive 
of depression of spirits in that class of invalids who are obliged to 
seek winter quarters away from home. Their associations should 
not be in a crowded caravansary, where the halls echo with the 



36 THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 

sad sound of coughing, and the corridors seem sepulchral with the 
hoarse voices of sufferers. Far better is it to find companionship 
with the woodsman or the fisherman, and be entertained by their 
woodcraft or simple lore of boats, bays and streams. 

The ideal winter climate for invalids, embracing perfectly all 
the essentials and suited to the fancy and caprice of sufferers, may 
not be found, but it can be approximated in its most important re- 
quisites. 

It is evident that in Europe and in this country mild or warm 
climates have of recent years grown most in favor as winter health 
resorts. In our own land Florida has become the great winter 
sanitarium for consumptive invalids, for the nervous and debili- 
tated, and for valetudinarians of all degrees, with the prospect of in- 
creasing in repute as the merits of some of its most advantageous 
localities become more generally known. My personal observa- 
tions of Florida have extended over the regions usually visited by 
invalids and tourists, and over a domain of wilderness beyond the 
ready access of travelers. The greater part of the territory of the 
entire State still remains inaccessible to invalids, and the tide of 
travel is mostly confined to the great water-course of the St. John's 
River and vicinity ; but the increased developments of railroads 
and of the coast and interior navigation are about to speedily 
spread travel over a most attractive sanitary region. That there are 
portions of Florida much more suited for winter homes than those 
generally resorted to it is the object of this article to state. 

Florida is a land of many waters. It has a coast line of about 
twelve hundred miles. Its rivers, lakes, everglades and lagoons 
are numberless. It is estimated that from a fourth to a third of the 
entire State, varying with the season of the year, is covered by 
water. To its extensive and peculiar water containings and sur- 
roundings is due its unique and wonderfully mild and equable 
climate. Florida is our nether land, which, as Sidney Lanier 
wrote, by " its peninsular curve whimsically terminates our coun- 
try in an interrogation point." It geographically and climatically 
resembles Italy, but its air is more bland and healthful, and its soil 
has even a greater range of productiveness. 

No known land is exempt from the liability of its inhabitants 
to pulmonary consumption, but in this country statistics of the last 



THE GULF COAST OF FLOKIDA. 37 

two decades show that the disease progressively diminishes from 
our extreme Northern States southward to Florida. The mortality 
from consumption, as compared with all other causes of death in 
Florida, is, by the census, but 58 to the 1,000 ; whilst in the State 
of Maine it is 258 to the 1,000; Connecticut, 179; Pennsylvania, 
142, and South Carolina, 90. 

The low consumption mortality of Florida exists, notwith- 
standing the number of Northern invalids who seek too late its 
healthy air, only to end their days and add to the normally very 
low death rate. The best authority on the subject, Dr. Kenworthy, 
of Jacksonville, who has given much intelligent attention to 
climate in the cure of consumption and to sanitary statistics in gen- 
eral, believes that the mortality from consumption among the per- 
manent residents of Florida actually does not exceed thirty deaths 
to the thousand from all causes. 

Of the extended seaboard of Florida the Gulf Coast stretches 
over seven hundred miles. The climate of this coast has, in my 
opinion, more of the essentials of a good winter resort for invalids 
than any other of which 1 know. I make this statement after some 
personal experience over a large extent of the coast, from much 
conference with invalids who have happily tested its merits, and 
from a comparison with the thermometric and hygrometric records 
of many of the various popular health resorts of the world. The 
west, or Gulf coast of Florida has a temperature more mild, 
equable and dry than that of the corresponding Atlantic border. 
As compared with that of the much-frequented region of the St. 
John's River, in the winter season it is free from malarious in- 
fluences, fogs are unknown, and the opportunities and inducements 
for an out-door life are far greater. Sidney Lanier, the poet, whose 
failing days were prolonged by a residence in Florida, says that 
the air of the Gulf Coast is " milder and dryer than on the eastern 
coast in midwinter ; and it is to be greatly hoped that increased 
facilities for reaching these favorable regions will soon render them 
practicable to those who now find the journey too trying." 

For the agriculturist and the orange-grower, and for the gar- 
dener who raises early vegetables for the Northern markets, this 
coast offers a fertile soil and a climate freer from destructive frosts 
tha*n any other part of the peninsula. To the capitalist and the 



38 THE GTJLF COAST OF FLORIDA. 

investor for speedy increase in values of lands, it, with the rapid de- 
velopment of railroads now stretching their competing lines to the 
fertile hummock lands and numerous harbors of this coast region, 
gives assurance of a flood tide of immigration — 

" The first faint wash of waves where soon 
Shall roll the human sea." 

The Gulf Coast has great advantages in its many excellent 
harbors, and is, in this respect, more favored than the Atlantic 
border of the peninsula, which, south of the mouth of the St. John's 
River, has not a single good harbor. The best harbors of the west 
coast are at Cedar Keys, the Anclote River, Clear Water Harbor, 
Tampa Bay, Manatee Bay, Palma Sola Bay, Sarasota Bay, Char- 
lotte Harbor and San Carlos Harbor; but there are innumerable 
inlets, with moderate depths of water, passing in between the thou- 
sands of beautiful islands which border the entire coast line. These 
islands, or keys, are lovely, fertile tracts, mostly in primitive wilder- 
ness, capable of high cultivation, with a delightful climate, and 
their only disadvantage is the liability to partial overflow from the 
occasional hurricane tides of late summer or early autumn. Res- 
idences on them can be safely located only on eminences above the 
possible reach of the waters, which may rise six or eight feet above 
the normal level. 

The whole of the Gulf Coast, from Cedar Keys southward, is 
attractive for health- and pleasure-seekers, but the southern limit is 
sharply defined near the end of the peninsula by a region so in- 
flicted with insect annoyances as to render human existence intoler- 
able. How far south ward the coast may be in all respects desirable 
for winter residences, my explorations have not determined ; but 
from Homosassa down as far as the Ten Thousand Islands, a region 
included between the twenty-sixth and twenty-eighth degrees of 
latitude, the invalid will find a winter climate presenting the essen- 
tials, as I have stated them, of equability of temperature, purity of 
atmosphere and comparative dryness. 

The mean temperature for the five cold months for a period of 
five years, at the United States Signal Station at Punta Rassa, about 
two hundred miles south of Cedar Keys and one hundred north 
of Cape Sable, is shown in the following table: • 



THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 



39 





2! 

o 


b 

a 


P 
B 


*1 


P 






B 


B 


P 


s 


(3* 


O g 

B 




a 
a 




"<1 










69.4 


64.6 


64.8 


66.1 


68.8 


66.7 







Another table shows the maximum and minimum temperatures 
for the same months in the years 1878 and 1879. 



Punta Rassa. 


3 



< 
a 

B 



a 



E 


P 

B 




K 
p 

tf 


a 
p 






c 












a 


>-s 




: 








83.7 
46.7 


76.2 
42.3 


79.3 
46.7 


79. 5 — 
47.5 


82.6 
49.7 


80.7 




46.6 







Here is shown a winter temparature which, with its well-known 
equability, renders out-door life agreeable, and dwelling apartments 
can always be kept open to the free admission of air. The winter 
temperature is rarely so low as to require even the open wood-fire. 
The skies, from sunrise over the tops of the pines and palms to the 
dip of a red sunset into the warm waters of the Gulf, are almost 
always bright and blue, checkered only by white flying clouds. 
The balmy breezes blow mildly and almost without ceasing, except- 
ing during an occasional lull of calm at the sunset hour, so that 
the advantage to health of continuous and moderate air movements 
prevails. 

As to purity of atmosphere the situation and surroundings are 
extremely favorable. The breezes blow from either the vast area of 
waters of the Gulf or from over great forests of pine, palm and 
cypress, with their ozonizing influences. It is due to these agencies 
and to the remarkable dryness that an aseptic condition of the 
atmosphere exists. I have seen venison, game birds and other 
meats remain for many days, or even for weeks, hanging unprotected 
in the open air, free from taint, and becoming merely hard and dry 
without decomposition. 

No claim for the sanitary merits of the Gulf Coast of Florida 
will create so much surprise as that of the comparative dryness of 
its atmosphere. The natural and popular inference that it has a 



40 



THE GULF COAST OF FLORIDA. 



moist climate must be from a consideration of its vast traverses and 
surroundings of water, fresh and salt, and not from the trustworthy 
reports of the Signal Service or from personal observation. I am 
not able to give a reasonable explanation of the cause of the re- 
markable dryness of the atmosphere amidst such a realm of waters; 
but that the climate of this coast is comparatively dry and bracing 
can be proved by the records of official observation and attested by 
the permanent residents of the region. The following table, from 
official data, of relative humidity of some winter resorts of Europe 
and America shows particularly well for Punta Rassa, on the Gulf 
Coast of Florida, during the five cold months : 





oa 


2 

o 
< 
cd 

B 
o* 

CD 


b 

CD 

a 
a> 

B 
c 

CD 

1 


P 

B 
B 
P 

■-S 


3 

g 


g 
p 

H 
o 






3 
5 
5 
5 
5 
5 
5 


per ct. 
71.8 
76.9 
76.9 
70.3 
72.7 
77.1 
71.7 


per ct. 
74.2 
79.1 
83.2 
73.5 
73.2 
78.7 
69.3 


per ct. 
72.0 
80.6 
76.8 
75 2 
74.2 
78.9 
70.1 


per ct. 
70.7 
77.3 
81.8 
70.7 
73.7 
77.2 
68.5 


per ct. 
73.3 
76.8 
79.5 
67.1 
69.9 
72.2 
63.9 


per ct. 
72.4 


Atlantic City, N. J 


78.1 
79.6 


St. Paul, Miim 


71.3 




72.7 


Key "West Fla 


76.8 




68.8 







Data supplied by the United States Signal Service prove that 
during the five cold months the relative humidity of Florida, as 
taken at a number of widely separated stations of observation, is 
less than that of what is popularly called the " dry winter climate of 
Minnesota." 

The very small rainfall at Punta Rassa during the five cold 
months, given in inches and hundredths, from the statistics of the 
Signal Service, is as follows : 





2 


b 


=H 


*! 


a 


g 




o 


CD 
O 


B 


C 


p 


a <d 

p p 






CD 


£ 










B 


B 


p 


p 


p- 


a 




CD 














; 










- en 




1.62 


1.08 


2.31 


1.79 


.83 


1.52 



The mean of the maximum and minimum temperatures oi the 
water of the ocean bottom, at Punta Rassa, for the five cold months 
during five years, from 1878 to 1883, is here shown : 



THE GFLF COAST OP FLORIDA. 



41 



o 



o 


P 

a 


a- 




a 




a 


I 




P 


E 

c 


9 


B 


cr 




r 








72.8 


07. 2 


63.6 


68 1 


73.0 



Punta Rassa. 



Such temperatures render sea bathing agreeable throughout 
the winter and early spring months. 

For an attractive out-door life in the winter for invalids I know 
of no region equaling the Gulf Coast of Florida, with its great bays 
and harbors for sailing, its wonderful fishing and excellent deer 
hunting, and the great abundance of feathered game in the forests 
and on the waters. There is perpetual inducement to spend time 
in the open air. The sun does not parch, the winds do not chill, 
and the atmosphere has that indefinable poetic quality called 
"dreamy." I have felt comfortable in the bracing air when very 
lightly dressed, and not oppressed when heavily clothed. Sea 
bathing is agreeable on the shelly or white sandy beaches all 
through the winter, and I have found the water warmer on the 
western than on the eastern coast of the peninsula. 

The reason that the Gulf Coast has not been more popularly 
known as a sanitary resort is the want of convenient access and of 
accommodations for sojourners, but a happy change is at hand. 
Coasting steamers now run into all of the more important harbors, 
as those of Anclote, Tampa, Palma Sola and San Carlos ; and rail- 
roads are rapidly being constructed to reach the towns all along 
the coast. The want of convenient residences for invalids is now 
quite overcome, and comfortable accommodations can b.e had in 
every village. The hospitality of the people renders the stay genial 
and social, and it is a common remark, which I have happily 
verified, that in Florida wherever you see a house you can find a 
home, for every home seems open to welcome the stranger. 

At a most attractive and salubrious location on the high pe- 
ninsula between Manatee Bay and Sarasota Bay, on the shore of 
Palma Sola Bay, a beautiful site for villas is being developed, and 
a large hotel will be ready this winter for the accommodation of 
health- or pleasure-seeking visitors. This locality can be readily 
reached by the coasting steamers from Cedar Keys to Palma Sola, 



42 MANATEE COUNTY. 

about one hundred miles, or by rail to Tampa via Sanford, thence 
by daily steamer to Palma Sola. The land here is much elevated, 
overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, through Palma Sola Bay and Long 
Boat Inlet. The elevation of this region, which is the highest on 
the coast, and its extensive water surroundings, render it most 
favorable for a winter resort, and, indeed, for residence during the 
entire year. A number of persons from the North are erecting cot- 
tages on these shores, so that abundant accommodations will soon 
be ready for winter visitors to this favorable locality. 

To all who would escape from the severity and danger of our 
Northern winters and seek a mild, equable and comparatively dry 
climate, free from malarial influences, and where life in the open 
air is always practicable and agreeable, I commend a journey to 
the Gulf Coast of Florida. 

MANATEE COUNTY. 

In the preparation of this pamphlet, which is designed to give 
the information most frequently asked for by correspondents, the 
authors have culled liberally from the most reliable sources obtain- 
able, giving due credit for articles which cost their authors much 
more work than the simple use of the shears which placed them 
here. The following article on Manatee County, from the pen of 
Col. John G. Webb, one of the most practical, scientific and success- 
ful farmers, will be found to contain many items of interest which 
apply as well to Palma Sola, which is located on its western side, as 
to any part of it. 



Area, 4,680 square miles; 2,995,200 acres. Population in 
i860, 834; in 1870, 1,931; in 1880, 3,544. Number of public 
schools, 44; school lands unsold, 86,772 acres; scholars of school 
age, 1,285; whites, 1,243; colored, 42; attendance, 571; number 
of acres improved land, 1,993. Horses and mules, 855; cattle, 
53> 2 73> sheep, 1,329; hogs, 8,892. Assessed value of property in 
1881, $899,556. 

Manatee county is mostly situated between the 27th and 28th 
parallels of latitude, a little of it extending below the 27th, and it 
cannot be successfully disputed that it embraces the most southern 



MANATEE COUNTY. 43 

body of desirable land of much extent in Florida, for, except the 
islands on the coast below it and a narrow strip on both banks of 
the Caloosahatchie, only a few miles below, if not within our 
boundary, and the Lake Worth region in Dade county— of no 
great extent — I do not know of any very choice locations south 
of it. 

In considering the desirableness of any region as a residence, 
there are many considerations that enter into a reasonable estimate. 
In a general way they may be referred to under the following heads, 
viz.: i st, Climate; 2d, Soil; 3d, Character of the Inhabitants; 4th, 
Accessibility. 

If a man is seeking for a cold climate he will look elsewhere than 
in Florida, and if he is seeking a warm and almost frostless one he 
will be likely to go as far south, even in Florida, as he can get, 
provided always that the climate in other respects is inviting. He 
will ask: " Is the climate healthful?" I answer that there is no 
healthier region in Florida, and I doubt whether there is in the 
United States. I resided in the county for several years before there 
was more than one doctor in it, and I don't think that he got rich 
very fast, though an excellent and scientific physician. There are 
now in the county just four practicing physicians, and two of them 
are engaged in mercantile business, and one of those two also 
edits and publishes a newspaper. The truth is our people are not 
often very sick, and many things which come under the cognizance 
of a doctor in other States are got along without his assistance here, 
and apparently just as well. 

I think the most material feature of our county is the size ot 
the families. Children do not seem to be born here to die, but to 
live, and yet I do not think our people live well, or pay any atten- 
tion to speak of to the laws of health. It is from such facts as these 
that I draw my conclusions as to the comparative healthfulness of 
our climate. 

Another feature of a climate is the presence or absence of nox- 
ious insects. Let us examine that question. Away from the coast 
mosquito-bars are the exception, but I think that during a part of 
every summer people would study their comfort if they provided 
their beds with them. It is a curious fact that the presence of mos- 
quitoes in large numbers depends upon excessive draughts. In a 



44 MANATEE COUNTY. 

normal condition of things, when the ponds do not dry up, the fish, 
of which the ponds are always full, destroy the wrigglers, and mos- 
quitoes are only produced in such wet places as are destitute of 
fish. But when the ponds, as they are sometimes, are completely 
dried up, and are again filled by the rains, and before they get 
stocked with fish, the wrigglers flourish, with no enemies to keep 
them down, and generate mosquitoes in countless millions. But 
the fish reappear from some unknown hiding places, and in a few 
weeks restock the ponds with young fish and the mosquitoes dis- 
appear. 

On the coast, while they are never as numerous as they are 
sometimes in the interior, they are more persistent, though scarcely 
noticeable except in July, August and September. But the drain- 
ing (and sometimes this is a simple affair) of the sand flats, where 
the tide and rain make brackish water, makes a great difference 
with them. Sand fleas are just as bad, and no worse than in light 
sandy soils anywhere where dogs and hogs are allowed to run in 
and under the house. House-flies need never be seen in any well- 
regulated house, or, rather, house with properly-regulated surround- 
ings. 

We have the large rattlesnake, not exactly the same species 
found North and West, and away from the coast the ground -rattle- 
snake, and in about sloughs several varieties of the moccasin, and 
we have a variety of harmless snakes, some of which make war 
upon the venomous kinds. No white man here ever thinks of 
destroying a harmless snake, or ever fails to kill a harmful one. 

The next question of climate is temperature. I could give 
yearly and monthly means, but I will not, but prefer to say gener- 
ally that our short winter in Manatee county is much like the first 
half of October, minus the rains of that season, in Central New 
York and New England. It is now more than four years 
since I observed any frost at my place on Sarasota Bay, or the 
thermometer below 38, -and I think that has been the case only 
on one morning. It has been forty several times during four years 
and somewhere about forty-five three or four times during each 
winter. The early part of the year is usually dry and almost con- 
tinuously pleasant, and just right as to temperature. About the 
first of July the weather begins to be showery and becomes hot. 



MANATEE COUNTY. 45 

The thermometer rarely rises above ninety, but then it rarely falls 
below eighty, and until about the first of October this condition of 
things continues. But even during our summer months, to a man 
who can afford to desist from labor, the climate is quite as agree- 
able as the summer of the North. As to the question whether a 
white man can labor out of doors in a South Florida summer, I can 
only answer that I have labored consecutively and severely for the 
last fourteen summers at almost every kind of out-door work. And 
farm labor is not less essential here in the summer than elsewhere. 
There are only about one hundred blacks in Manatee county, and 
it would be absurd to suppose that they do all the summer work 
for the county. But the value of the climate consists in this: That 
crops may be produced the whole year round. 

Now let us look at the question of soil. We have some rich 
lands in our county — as fertile as can be found anywhere. One 
tract on the Manatee River comprises not less than 6,000 acres, and 
there is a large body equally fertile on the opposite or south side of 
the river. Smaller hummocks and rich bay-heads are scattered 
over the county everywhere. The keys or islands lining the shores 
often have good land, and always a climate free from frost. But if 
Manatee county consisted of rich alluvial soil like the rich valleys 
of the North, it would be so unhealthy that all its fertility would be 
useless. But most of the soil is naturally poor, through flat dry 
and flat wet to shallow ponds, deep ponds and sloughs, hundreds 
of thousands of acres prairies and some river bottoms. The high, 
rolling pine woods make the best orange land, but the flatwoods 
make the best farms, for while we suffer from two extremes, wet 
and dry, we suffer most from the extreme of too dry, and it is then 
that the flatwoods show their superiority. The prairie lands appear 
fertile, but they have not yet been tried. I believe they are some 
of our very best lands. 

Suppose a stranger comes in from the North or West and buys 
a tract of pine woods or prairie. He must first decide upon his 
house. A palmetto-leaf hut is the cheapest and every way the 
meanest. Then comes the log house, which is cheap if not alto- 
gether comfortable. On the coast the concrete house may be built 
by the most unskilled labor, and, when completed, is a wholly com- 
fortable and not expensive house. Lumber is worth about $16 per 



46 MANATEE COUNTY. 

thousand feet at the saw-mills. His chimney, and every house 
needs one for comfort in winter, is made, away from the coast, of 
sticks plastered with clay; on the coast, of rock laid in mortar. His 
cheapest fence will be plain No. i x galvanized wire; two strands 
will keep out cattle. Posts should be ten feet apart, of lightwood, 
and will not cost much. A ditch should be dug around the fence 
and the earth thrown under the wires, and then a log laid along 
the ridge. This completes the fence and makes a hog and cattle- 
proof fence. The ditch keeps off fire, and with a suitable outlet 
keeps off water from adjacent overflowing lands. Why not use rails ? 
Because near the coast the pines will not split, and the pines of the 
interior will not last as rails more than five years. The fence I have 
described can be built at a cost not to exceed fifty cents a rod. Then 
comes clearing. To clear away the palmetto will not cost over $10 
per acre; much land can be cleared for half that. The trees are 
simply deadened, and the land in August planted to sweet potatoes 
and partly in cow-peas. These last are to be turned under before 
they die in November or December, and in February planted to 
sweet potatoes. This is the great renovating crop. All weeds and 
grasses are " listed in " with the hoe and plow into the ridges, and 
sweet potatoes planted anywhere from August till November, and 
dug when the proprietor sees fit. He digs them only when they 
are wanted. 

The settler should lose no time in providing himself with pigs, 
and even if he has to buy corn to feed them they will pay in the 
manure they will manufacture. There are other sources of garden 
manure that will suggest themselves to the economical and tidy 
housekeeper, that, for the sake of health and exemption from house- 
flies, should not be neglected. There are times when fastidiousness 
"o'releaps itself." There is also a manure manufactured from the 
wastes of the fisheries that is valuable. 

But the great source of manure in Florida is now and always 
will be muck from the sea coast or ponds. There are various ways 
of preparing it. My method is by heat. Make a pile of lightwood 
and cover it with muck, except a breathing hole in the top. Heat 
it like a coal-pit or tar-kiln. When the wood is burned up^ the muck 
will be converted into manure. 

But with all this labor of manure-making can he also make 



MANATEE COUNTY. 47 

money ? By gardening, if near transportation, yes. Manatee county 
is beginning to show her ability to furnish the North with early veg- 
etables. The business has hardly begun. So far the North has re- 
fused to buy our sweet-potatoes, which are so much superior to 
those they are accustomed to, and at the same time so different 
that they need to learn to eat them under a new name per- 
haps. A little well-directed effort will remove this prejudice, and 
if once removed a new and immense source of revenue will be 
opened up to us. 

It will be noticed that I have said nothing of the orange or its 
kindred. I have done so because I have been addressing plain 
people. Only a capitalist can afford to create an orange or lime 
grove. The plain farmer will gradually produce one. It will be to 
him a branch of his farming instead of his sole employment, and 
considered in this light it will pay. Nor have I alluded to the ba- 
nana. The stranger can have but slight conception of the luxuri- 
ance of growth and magnitude of yield of this plant. The most 
profitable kind, the African, is best cultivated in rich ponds, bedded 
up high and drained. As the herbaceous tree produces a bunch and 
the bunch ripens, the tree dies ; but many shoots spring up to take 
its place. These, except one, can be transplanted, and before a 
year they will bear. I have seen four hundred bananas on a single 
shoot at one time, and the shoots need not be over ten feet apart. 
The market for these bananas is constantly increasing, but if the 
settler never sold one he would be the gainer for it. 



YACHTING ON THE GULF. 



DOWN THE COAST IN THE SCHOONER MALLORY. 



AN ARTIC NIGHT AT CEDAR KEYS SAILING INTO SUMMER WEATHER 

THE FIRST GAME PALMA SOLA. 



" Oh, wad sum power the giftie gie us, 
To see oursels as others see us." 

Burns. 

The following letters, cut from the New York Sunday 
Time*, of April and May, '84, give so pleasant a picture of 
Paltna Sola and its surroundings, as seen by their special cor- 
respondent, W. Dry sd ale, that they are given entire. This 
gentleman was so happily impressed with the location that he 
selected a home where a horde of newspaper men will enjoy 
with him the pleasures of winter life on Manatee Bay. When 
a New York newspaper man fails to find the best thing in life, 
and get them, too, it's of little use for others to seek them. 
His experiences — hunting, fishing, and boating — make a part 
of the every -day life of the resident here, boats being oftener 
used for travel and transportation than teams. 

The fact that Florida, and especially this part of it, is 
attracting attention that is as world-wide as the circulation of 
the Sunday Times, is evident from the fact that hundreds of 
letters were received from all quarters of the States, Canada, and 
England, referring to the Times correspondence from Palma 
Sola, and asking for further information. To the Times, and 
especially "W. D.," Palma Sola is indebted for more than 
"honorable mention," full appreciation of which will be made 
evident upon his return. 



" AS OTHERS SEE US. " 49 

Palma Sola, Fla., Feb. 13. — In wandering aimlessly about 
the streets of Cedar Keys in search of my friends with the yacht, 
and afterwards in despair haunting- the piers with the idle hope 
that I might find their vessel without even knowing her name, 
I came across a trim little schooner yacht, so much neater and 
shapelier than an}' of the others, so much cleaner and brighter 
in her paint, so much more taut and ship-shape in her rigging, 
she looked as if she might belong to a party of New York pleas- 
ure seekers. And so indeed she did. She was the yacht Mallory, 
preparing for a fortnight's cruise down the Gulf coast to that 
paradise of the fisherman and the sportsman — Charlotte Harbor. 
Anything more pleasant than such an excursion as this it would 
be difficult to imagine — making a dash out of New York in the 
worst of the cold season, coming rapidly southward by rail and 
finding at Cedar Keys this fine schooner yacht equipped and 
provisioned in a way that would have answered for a transat- 
lantic voyage. And three gentlemen, Mr. Henry Gaullieur, Mr. 
Barnet Phillips, and Mr. Turcas, had settled upon the most 
enjoyable thing in the world for a winter trip, and were ready 
to get into the region of perpetual summer without delay. 

Three o'clock having been fixed upon for the sailing hour, 
we all went up to the Suwanee House to dinner. And when the 
viands came in, served upon something like a score of dishes for 
each person, we gave ourselves up for lost. One member of the 
party, who has had unlimited experience with hotel dinners, 
said he had always found that the more dishes that were served 
the poorer was the dinner. When there were only two or three 
dishes they were likely to be good and well cooked, but when 
there were a dozen they were pretty sure to be bad. This dinner 
in the Suwanee was no exception to the rule. There were 
plenty of dishes, such as they were, and they were very good 
what there was of them. But even a New York dinner at that 
moment would hardly have tempted us, for we were full of the 
vexation of having a truck-load of trunks and satchels taken to 
the yacht, and of collecting the thousand and one things that 
can only be gathered together at the last moment, The obliging 
landlord promised us that the porter should have a truck in 
front of the hotel for our trunks in half an hour ; it could not 



50 " AS OTHEKS SEE TJS." 

possibly be there sooner, but it should not be a minute later. 
So we started out for the stores again to see what else we could 
find that might possibly be useful in such a voyage. When the 
time was about half expired we returned to the hotel to see after 
our baggage, and were told by the landlord, with a show of 
pride at his punctuality, that our trunks were gone. 

"Gone!" exclaimed one member of the party, aghast. 
" Impossible ! Why, my trunk was not packed." 

" I can't help that, " said the landlord, ' ' the trunks are gone. 
They went about ten minutes ago." 

The unpacked member hurried up stairs to see what had 
happened to his baggage, and found indisputable evidence that 
the porter, in his zeal to be on time, had packed his trunk for 
him and hustled it off to the yacht. He had not thought it 
worth while to put in the few stray hair-brushes, whisp brooms, 
and other toilet articles that were scattered about the room, but 
all the larger articles were gone. Mr. G.aullieur gathered up the 
fragments, which in this instance did not make 12 basketsful, 
but only one little bundle, done up in a newspaper, and we 
started for the yacht, the landlord declaring as we went out that 
the porter never had done such a thing as pack a guest's trunk 
before, and that he would see that he would never do it again. 
This was a noble resolve on the landlord's part, and I trust he 
will carry it out. 

When we reached the yacht, at precisely 3 o'clock, we found 
the shipping agent, the captain, the crew, the cook, two or three 
porters, and a little army of hangers-on about the wharf, all 
making frantic efforts to get the last of the provisions and 
other necessaries on board. That is, each one Was trying vainly 
to get somebody else to do something, and nobody was doing 
anything worth talking about except the shipping agent, who 
was a New-England er, and had more energy than a dozen of 
the natives. Two or three little things "were still lacking, and 
we could not well start without them — the water, for instance. 
Now, water was the last thing that any one in our party would 
have waited for, but the cook declared he could not get along 
without it, and we had to take some aboard. Then there was a 
sailor missing and the agent said he was too good a man to lose> 



"AS others see us." 51 

and we had to wait for him. One stray article after another 
kept arriving till nearly dark, the water was taken aboard 
another sailor was found, and we were all ready to be off. But 
just at this happy moment the wind died out and the captain said 
there was no possible chance of our getting out of the harbor 
before morning. Considering what an undertaking it was to 
get everything together, the commander of the expedition de- 
cided to run no more risks, but to keep the party aboard the yacht 
all night and make an early start in the morning. So with the bow 
and stern securely tied up to the wharf we had a chance in the 
early hours of the evening to look into the mysteries of the lockers 
and closets and fo'castles and cubbies that were scattered all 
about us. And what an outfit for a pleasure trip we gazed upon •' 
What cans of meat, what baskets of bread, what stores of every- 
thing good to eat ; what company files and regiments of bottles, 
containing, no doubt, Apollinaris and soda; what boxes of cigars; 
what pillows stuffed with choice brands of smoking tobacco; 
what varieties of pipes; what countless little devices for making 
a fortnight's cruise pleasant ! It reminds me of Robinson Crusoe 
after he had made a successful trip to his wonderful wreck, and 
returned to the island loaded down with everything the heart 
could desire. I doubt whether a vessel ever went out of port 
for so short a cruise so wonderfully provisioned. There was only 
one thing lacking, in my opinion, as we lay in harbor at Cedar 
Keys that night. This was a gale of wind that would drive us a 
few thousand miles away, down to the west coast of Peru, for 
instance, or into the mouth of the Amazon, and wreck us on any 
distant but friendly coast, that we might gather together the 
remains, and live for months upon them without thought of 
coming back to civilization. But no gale came, nor any wind 
at all, and we lay quietly by the wharf all night. 

As we were in mild and sunny Florida, of course we ex- 
pected reasonably comfortable weather. But for that first night 
of our journey we were mistaken. The wind had been chilly 
enough in the afternoon, but as soon as the sun went down it 
was absolutely cold. Although we all had heavy clothes and 
plenty of blankets, we suffered more from the cold that night 
aboard the yacht than we would have in New York in a room 



52 " AS OTHERS SEE US." 

without a fire. There was no way to keep the cold wind out 
and blankets seemed to have no effect upon it. A glass of water 
stood upon the cabin table, and when I got up in the middle of 
the night, preferring to sit up and shiver rather than lie still 
and freeze, I found myself watching this glass of water to see 
whether it would not take on a coating of ice. Of course, it 
was not cold enough to freeze, but it was a miserable kind of 
cold that went through all the clothing you could put on, and 
made everybody and everything uncomfortable. Although no 
one in the party acknowledged to having passed a night of 
misery, yet I noticed that within five minutes after we heard the 
cook starting a fire in his gallery we were all upon deck bug- 
ging his little cooking pen in the most abject manner. He used 
cedar chips for fuel, and the smoke of a thousand lead pencils 
came out of the galley pipe and nearly suffocated us. But we 
were all so nearly frozen that no amount of smoke could have 
driven us away from the fire. 

We were a jolly pleasure party, hugging the galley fire 
before daylight, choked with the aromatic cedar-wood smoke, 
and all chilled to the marrow. Soon after daylight the sun 
gave some signs of coming up, and we watched for it with the 
greatest anxiety. I don't remember ever looking for the sun's 
coming up with any great concern before, but this morning we 
all looked upon him as our best friend, and when, after just 
showing his head, he disappeai-ed temporarily in a bank of 
mist, our spirits fell almost as low as the thermometer was. 
Pretty soon, however, he began to give us a little heat, and our 
arctic night on the Gulf coast was over. There was a fine breeze 
blowing, and we made good time out among the Cedar Keys, 
out past the lead-pencil works, out of the harbor entirely, out 
into the Gulf. Then we had a free course and a fair wind for our 
sail of 200 miles down the coast. It was still too chilly to come 
out on deck without heavy overcoats, and we kept in the shelter 
of the cabin as much as possible. We were too far out from the 
coast to see much of it, but near enough to feel easy over its pres- 
ence. All morning going down the coast we occupied ourselves 
chiefly with trying to keep warm, and with wondering how it 
happened that Cedar Keys was so much colder than New-York. 



"AS OTHERS SEE US." 53 

All four of us had traveled a good many hundreds of miles in 
search of warm weather, and so far we had made a disastrous 
failure of it. But about 1 o'clock on our first afternoon out we 
found it. It came so suddenly it almost seemed as if there 
were a sharp line drawn from east to west, with cold weather to 
the north of it and warm weather to the south of it. We were 
all up on deck shortly after dinner lying in sheltered sunny 
places smoking our pipes, when somebody discovered it was 
warm enough to go without our overcoats. Within five minutes 
all the overcoats were shed and fired in a wintry heap down on 
the cabin floor. In the next half hour another layer of coats 
had to follow. We had reached summer land at last after 
many tribulations. Suddenly the shelter we wanted was from 
the sun instead of from the wind. We stretched out on the 
cabin roof, leaned against the masts, or lounged any where about 
the decks without fear of being frost-bitten. The party were 
well supplied with guns, and as the air was full of gulls, 
pelicans, and blue heron, we had an occasional shot without 
any great results. That night we passed in comfort, and early 
in the morning one of the sailors called us up to see how neatly 
we had been provided with a breakfast. Our yawl was towed 
astern with a long line, and in the night a large Spanish mack- 
erel had jumped into it and was waiting for the frying-pan. He 
was plump and of course fresh, and made us a delicious break- 
fast. Before noon we reached Clearwater Harbor, where the 
captain of the yacht lived, and he was anxious to go ashore and 
see his family. So we came to an anchor, and two of the party 
went ashore with their rifles in search of game. They came 
back later, bringing a blue heron, a duck, and a sensational 
report of a number of wildcat tracks along the shore. This 
heron and the duck were the first blood, and they made the 
party long for gore; so the greater part of the afternoon was 
spent in the cabin operating a lot of little machines that pre- 
pared the cartridge shells for business. If our yacht had been 
captured she might easily have been taken for a privateer 
schooner fitted out by the dynamiters to assist Ireland. There 
were enough cartridges aboard to kill every deer in the State 
of Florida, and powder and shot and bullets enough to supply 



54 "as othebs see us." 

an army. We worked faithfully all afternoon with the myste- 
rious little machines, some of which were for ramming the pow- 
der and shot into the cartridge shells, and others for trimming 
down and rounding off the ends. When this little job was 
finished we had something like five or six bushels of loaded 
cartridges. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon we reached the 
mouth of Tampa Bay and went inside past the Egmont Light- 
house. This left us a run of about 15 miles across Tampa Bay 
to Palma Sola, the first stopping place for the party, and the 
end of my journey in the yacht. As I had to spend a night there 
I was interested to know what sort of a place Palma Sola was, 
and made some inquiries among the crew. 

"Well," said one of the sailors, "I can hard]}' tell you just 
how large it is. It is smaller than New York, but bigger than 
no place at all. There are about a dozen houses there, one of 
which is a good little hotel, one an ice-house, and one Warner's 
store. The hotel is not very large, but it is one of the best ones 
on this side of Florida, and you will like it." 

Presently, having crossed Tampa Bay, we found ourselves 
at the mouth of a broad river. On the right along sandy point 
extended into the bay. Almost on the point was a little settle- 
ment of palmetto houses, which, the sailors told us, were used 
by fishermen. On the left was a long island, and near the 
middle of this island, in the front yard of an unoccupied house, 
was a very large and beautiful date palm tree. 

"The name of this place, you know," said one of the 
sailors, "is Palma Sola, and that is the Spanish for solitary 
palm. There is the solitary palm on that island." Things were 
beginning to look a little tropical; the weather was delightfully 
warm; the shores were shaded with palmetto trees; there was a 
big palm tree in sight, and the name of the river reminded us 
forcibly of the sea monster after which it is named. The water 
was clearer than any we had theretofore seen. The bottom 
was a pure white sand, and the whole scene was one of sum- 
mer. As we rounded the point Palma Sola came in sight. 
First, there was a large brown building, which we took to be 
the hotel, but which the sailors said was the ice-house; then the 
hotel showed up, and the church and a lot of residences, and 



"as others see tjs. " 55 

the great Warner's store, about which we had heard so much 
from the sailors, for it was said to contain a little of everything 
under the sun. We found as we drew nearer a large wharf in 
front of the store, but a steamship lay there, and we were 
compelled to anchor out in the harbor close to the wreck of an 
old vessel and directly in front of the hotel. The little hotel 
looked so clean and inviting that as I had to spend 24 hours 
there waiting for a steamer for Key West, I took courage to 
invite my yachting friends to come ashore and eat supper with 
me, which they did. Of our long walk before dark around 
curious and interesting Palma Sola, of our breaking big clusters 
of oysters off the roots of mangrove trees and eating them, of 
the great supper of fried clams and stewed oysters and fresh 
fish and fresh vegetables prepared for us in the hotel, and of 
the comfortable room with the snow-white bed where I was to 
stay one night, but did in fact stay a fortnight, I shall have 
something to say nest week. W. D. 



UNDER THE SOLITARY PALM. 



A NEARER VIEW OF A UNIQUE FLORIDA TOWN. 



PALMA SOLA ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON BOBINSON CRUSOE HOUSES 

THE ALLIGATOR BA\'OU AND THE OYSTER TREES. 



Palma Sola, Fla., Feb. 20. — The wreck of an old steamer 
her ribs and part of her boiler exposed, lies about 200 yards 
from shore directly in front of the Palma Sola Hotel. When 
they told me here it was " talked of " blowing the hulk to pieces 
because of its unsightliness, I remembered a Coney Island 
landlord saying to me once that he would give $1,000 to have a 
wrecked vessel on the beach in front of his hotel for an attrac- 
tion. A wreck always adds to the beauty of a marine view, and 
this one makes a romantic foreground for a handsome tropical 
landscape. Our yacht, the Mallory, came to anchor between 
the wreck and the wharf in front of the hotel, and in a few 
minutes we were all ashore. Mr. Scott, the landlord, immedi- 
ately took possession of my big trunk and started it on its jour- 
ney to the hotel on a wheelbarrow. As the trunk was about four 
sizes larger than the barrow, and as the path along the wharf was 
exceedingly narrow, I watched with great interest to see the 
trunk and the barrow and perhaps the landlord go overboard, 
but there was no such catastrophe. It was Sunday afternoon, 
and all Palma Sola was out in its best clothes. The entire 
population, numbering, when nobody is away on a visit, as many 
as 50 or 60 people, were on the wharf to watch the steamer, the 
yacht, or any other exciting thing they could find. Going into 



"AS others SEE US. ■'< 

the hotel and examining the register, the first name we came 
across was a familiar one — "George W. Curtis, New York." 
We jumped at the conclusion, of course, that we had come upon 
the editor of Harper's Weekly here in the wilds of Florida, but 
it was another Curtis. There was too much outside that was 
new and pretty for us to stay in doors before dark. The land- 
lord assigned me to a corner room on the ground floor, with 
windows overlooking the Manatee Kiver, Tampa Bay, and the 
Egmont Lighthouse. After two rough nights in sleeping cars, 
followed by two nights of tossing on the Gulf, the neat little 
chamber with its snowy bed and furniture of white ash impressed 
me as such a fairy-bower that I had to call the yachtsmen in to 
look at it, and then we started out to see the sights. In landing 
we had noticed a curious place to the left, or westward, and in 
that direction we walked. The Palma Sola wharf is on a point 
jutting to the eastward, and immediately above it the river 
widens out into a little bay, whose shore sweeps around with a 
graceful curve, showing a beach of pure white sand. A few 
hundred yards from the hotel the bay spreads itself oixt into the 
back country, through a narrow opening half concealed with 
mangrove trees, and makes a long, narrow bayou, where vege- 
tation is heavy, where fish are plenty, and where alligators on 
warm afternoons come out and sit on the banks and discuss the 
tariff question. Along the low sandy shore, between the hotel 
and the mouth of the bayou, we found a regular Robinson 
Crusoe settlement, and we went and reveled in it like a lot of 
school-boys. But I need not apologize for this, for old Robinson 
is still an intimate friend of mine, and we often spend a rainy 
evening together. With his exciting adventures, his quaint 
sayings, and the charm of his old-fashioned style, I find him 
altogether a better companion under the evening lamp than the 
artistic modern novel. This is not peculiar to me, but is the 
case with most men, if they would be honest enough to own it. 
The three yachtsmen were at once taken with the curious place, 
and I know it was because it reminded them of Robinson 
Crusoe's settlement, though they did not say so. There were 
five or six tiny little houses, built to suit the climate, the walls 
male of boards, or palmetto leaves, or anything that came 



58 "as otheks see us." 

handy, with occasionally one wall omitted entirely, where there 

did not seem to be any particular use for it ; with sometimes 

an old sail laid over the roof to keep out the rain, with a little 

fire, often built in the back yard, and the lady of the manor 

cooking the family supper there. Little houses, some of them 

not more than 12 feet square; cosy houses, all built under the 

shade of palm trees of the palmetto variety of trees of some 

other sort. All the doors and windows open (there is no glass 

in the windows); children playing in and about them; older 

people of both sexes sitting about the doors smoking their pipes; 

a quiet, peaceful little settlement, that in the warm sunset glow 

looks to us frost-nipped Northerners like Adam's family in Eden, 

but in reduced circumstances. On one side of the road this 

little cluster of houses, on the other side the river, with its white 

sandy beach, and on the sand lying all sorts of little boats, right 

side up and wrong side up, mantled and dismantled, some with 

sails and some without ; some propped up on one side, as if 

they had a colic; some high and dry on shore; some full of fish, 

some of oysters, and, scattered about everywhere, nets and seines 

and all the paraphernalia of the fisherman. For in these little 

houses live the fishermen of Palma Sola, and the oysterman, and 

their neighbors, the shoemaker, the boat-builder, and the painter. 

A few steps beyond the small houses, which are embowered in 

green leaves, the road led to a long and narrow wooden bridge. 

Near the eastern end of the bridge, before we came to it, we 

found the shore covered with mangrove bushes, and as it was 

low tide and the roots of the bushes were covered with small 

oysters we stopped to wonder at them and to eat some of the 

oysters. They are called mangrove oysters, and are very small, 

but very sweet. We found some stones and knocked off a few 

cubic feet of the oysters, and opened them with our knives. 

The larger ones of them tasted very much like our Shrewsbury, 

only sweeter. They grow on the roots and lower branches of 

the mangrove trees in clusters, and you have only to break off 

a piece of the root to secure a cluster of half a bushel or more. 

After leaving the oyster trees we went on a few steps further 

and stopped to admire the scenery. The long wooden bridge 

I have mentioned spanned one arm of the bayou. On the left, 



" AS OTHERS SEE US." 59 

across the mouth of the bayou, was a narrow wooden footbridge, 
several hundred feet long, giving access to a number of fine 
houses that line the river-bank. A short distance further up 
another narrow wooden footbridge spanned the bayou. As we 
walked out on one of these little bridges we saw thousands of 
fish in the water, great and small, but, as it was Sunday, 
of course we could not undertake to catch any of them. It 
was too late in the day for alligators, but we saw a number of 
places on the banks where they had mashed down the tall grass 
and bushes. The bottom of the lagoon was covered with dark 
colored weed, which made the water look black as ink, and if 
alligators know a good place when they see it hundreds of them 
go in there to rest. The vegetation was very dense, everything 
green, and palmetto palms were abundant. It was a sight we 
could have enjoyed for hours if it had not been so near supper 
time. But we were growing hungry and started back for the 
hotel, our hearts full of the glories of nature and our shoes full 
of Florida sand. If we were interested by what we saw we 
furnished an equal amount of amusement to the natives and 
their children, who were struck "all of a heap" by the hunting 
and sailoring costumes worn by our yachtsmen. And indeed I 
could not wonder at their astonishment, for when a New 
Yorker gets himself up for a hunting expedition game and natives 
alike have to quail before him. 

When we reached the hotel again supper was not quite 
ready, and we occupied some of the chairs on the front piazza* 
watching the sun gild the water for miles up the Manatee River 
and enjoying the delicious warm air. The table in the public- 
room was covered with newspapers, and we looked for news 
from home. I picked up an illustrated paper several weeks old 
and found two lines under the heading of " Deaths of the 
Week," that carried me far away from Florida, back to old 
New York. 

" Dr. John B. Wood, ex-President of the New York Press 
Club." 

The warm midwinter sun, just sinking to rest in the waves 
of Tampa Bay, lost all its brilliancy. The drooping palmetto 
trees, their green foliage suddenly turned black, changed into 



60 "as others see its.'' 

weeping willows. The bright-plumed birds, instead of joyful 
songs, chirped bits of funeral dirges. What floats from yonder 
staff' — a flag? No, a strip of crape. What rides there by the 
wharf — a boat ? No, a coffin. And this elevated spot of ground 
by the walk is not a flower-bed but a grave. Two lines of finest 
print thus change the landscape. Two lines take me from this 
Eden-spot of Florida back, quickly back, to frozen New York. 
I see my friend of many years ago carried mournfully to the 
tomb. I see those mild and loving eyes, in life the cause of so 
much joy and so much suffering, forever closed in death. I see 
our mutual friends mourning by the open grave. I see one of 
the kindest, the gentlest, the noblest of all God's noble creatures 
hidden from sight, and covered with clay. I feel the stricken 
widow's heart sink, as the clods fall upon the coffin. My own 
heart sinks as if in sympathy. I am back in my old chair in a 
New York newspaper office, hearing words of encouragement 
and cheer from those gentle lips. Those loving hands I see 
once more dealing out alms to the homeless and friendless. 
That tender heart throbs once more, as I have often known it 
to, at some tale of want and distress. That silent tongue once 
more is giving new life and new heart to some almost disheart- 
ened worker. The jovial smile plays once more upon the lips. 
Once more the half-blind eyes twinkle with love and good na- 
ture. Ah ! Dr. Wood, my old-time friend, if nature had made 
all mankind like you, where would newspapers get their para- 
graphs of crime, of avarice, of anything mean or wrong ? And 
am I never to shake that warm hand again, never again to hear 
that loving voice ? Once only, doctor, do you inspire an unholy 
thought, when I grow jealous to think that I must share my 
love and my sorrow with a thousand other writers of the 
younger generation. 'Tis but a brief adieu I bid thee, gentlest 
of friends, if I can so carry myself as to merit a share in the 
reward prepared for such as thou ! Dr. Wood — not that part 
which was of clay, and is buried, but that part which was of 
love and goodness, and is in heaven — I was reading about you 
only yesterday. Though I may never meet you more on earth, 
gentle, loving Dr. Wood; kind, compassionate, merciful; 
though the awful silent river for a brief time rolls between us, 



"AS others see us." 61 

yet listen to what I was reading about you, only yesterday, Dr. 
Wood: 

' ' Blessed are the merciful, for the}' shall obtain mercy. 

' ' Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the 
children of God." 

There was something quieting and restful in that beautiful 
Sunday evening twilight, after our unpleasant experiences 
further north. The guests in the hotel numbered only three 
or four besides ourselves, and at supper, which was soon ready, 
we were favored with seats at the table with our landlord and 
his family. It seemed like the first real meal we had had for 
weeks. Perhaps it was because of our unsuccessful efforts to 
find something worth eating in other Southern hotels; perhaps 
the sea trip had sharpened our appetites; but, at any rate, 
that first supper in the Palma Sola hotel seemed better than 
sitting down to a feast at Delmonico's. All the luxuries of 
Southern Florida were there — great big clams, beautifully fried; 
the sweetest of oysters from Sarasota, served raw; an abun- 
dance of fresh vegetables just out of the garden; fresh, ripe 
Florida oranges, and a great dish of guava jelly, home made, 
from Manatee County guavas. We let no edible thing escape, 
and after supper returned to the portico to watch the moon 
come up and smoke our pipes. Presently the yachl smen re- 
turned so their vessel to be ready for a start at daylight; and 
half an hour later the captain came ashore bearing me a mes- 
sage from them — a box crammed full of cigars and smoking 
tobacco and a flask containing a sovereign remedy for cramps 
and indigestion. This was doubly welcome, for the tobacco 
obtainable in Palma Sola is strikingly different from that found 
in Havana, and Manatee County is such a strong temperance 
place the nearest cholera medicine to be had is in Tampa, 30 
miles away. 

Early to bed and early to rise is the proper thing for 
Florida, where there is not much entertainment in the evening, 
but where early morning is always beautiful. I was out on the 
piazza soon after daylight, in time to see the sun come up out 
of the river. In the fortnight that I have spent in Palma Sola 
I have not missed this sight once. The early hands in the 



62 "as others see us." 

neigboring saw mill were just beginning to gather, for a day's 
work here is from sunrise to sunset. There were some signs 
of life aboard the yacht, and as I sat on the piazza in the light 
of the rising sun I saw the anchor raised and the mainsail 
hoisted. Ten minutes later the Mallory was under way again, 
and with a parting wave of the handkerchief to the party, who 
by this time were up on deck, I watched her round the point. 
When the breakfast bell rang she was only a little white spot 
out on Tampa Bay. It does not take long to become acquainted 
in a small place like Pahna Sola with so few boarders in the 
hotel; and perhaps my stock of tobacco and cholera medicine, 
judiciously administered, helped bring about that desirable end 
— -for when you are far away from a big city, a man with an 
open pouch and an uncorked bottle is a man to be cultivated, 
I was soon on good terms with Mr. Curtis, who if he was not 
the editor of Harper 's Weekly, was prime authority on all soi'ts 
of Florida fishing, the owner of a row-boat and a great assort- 
ment of fishing tackle, an ardent lover of a fragrant pipe, and 
in every way a first-rate companion. He gave me such glowing 
accounts of the fishing, the sailing, the alligator-shooting, and 
the sports of the place in general, and I was so well pleased 
with the Palma Sola hotel that I determined to spend at least 
a few days here and let the steamer go on to Key West without 
me. And now, after having been here two weeks, and having 
tramped, and rowed, and sailed, and steamed all over the land 
and the waters hereabout, I am so well acquainted with the 
Manatee River, with Terra Ceia Bay, with Snead's Island, with 
the neighboring towns of Manatee, Fogartyville, and Palmetto, 
and with the big alligator bayou, so cut in the hands with fish- 
ing-lines, so tanned with the warm Florida sun, I feel altogether 
like a native Floridian. 

Palma Sola is so different from any other place under the 
sun, and withal so quiet and so pleasant and inviting, it is 
worthy of description. It is a new town, even for Florida, 
where cities of a year's growth stand almost side by side with 
ancient St. Augustine. About 200 miles down the Gulf coast 
from Cedar Keys is Tampa Bay. This is a large body of water, 
four or five times as large as New York Bay, with a string of 



"as others see us." 63 

islands nearly shutting it off from the Gulf. Going up the 
south shore of Tampa Bay, three or four miles from the Gulf, 
the Manatee River is reached. This river is 25 or 30 miles 
long, and for the first 15 or 16 miles it is more a bay than a 
river, being from one to two miles broad, with a strong tide. 
Then the river narrows down into a little stream, full of alli- 
gators and fresh water fish; Palma Sola is on the side of the 
river nearest the Gulf, and about a mile from the river's mouth. 
The little bay in the river at this point makes an excellent 
harbor, with water of sufficient depth for the largest vessels. It 
is only a few years since there were no buildings at all at Palma 
Sola. Now there is a large store, one of the best in Florida; a 
good wharf, an immense ice-house, a big saw-mill, a hotel, a 
church, a school-house, and a number of handsome dwellings, 
nearly, if not quite all, belonging to Mr. W. S. Warner, the 
father and founder of the place, the postmaster, land agent, 
steamship agent, and general factotum. Mr. Warner, a New 
Englander by birth, but for many years a resident of this part 
of Florida, saw the natural advantages of the place, bought a 
large tract of the land, and founded Palma Sola. He has put 
in some hard strokes of work, and now is reaping his reward, 
by seeing his big store doing a flourishing business, his saw- 
mill eating up all the logs it can get hold of, and at least one 
steamer at his wharf nearly every day. His residence is one of 
the line houses fronting on the Manatee Iiiver, between the 
river and the bayou. There are three or four of these houses 
in a row, and they are all occupied by Warners. I tried one 
day to make a list of the Warner brothers, but at last had to 
give it up. One of them owns a good-sized steamboat, the 
Erie, which does a good business in collecting the garden 
produce raised hereabout in large quantities, and carrying it 
to Tampa, whence it is shipped by rail to New York. Another 
brother owns and sails a beautiful yacht, the Mischief, and 
carries out excursion parties. Mr. Warner has made a heroic 
fight against being called " captain," and I think he is about the 
only man in Manatee County who is not "captain" of some- 
thing or other, if it is only an oyster-sloop. No, there is one 
other man over on Terra Ceia Bay who is not a captain. He 



64 "as others see us.'' 

is a judge. The vessels of the Tampa Steamship Company 
touch at Palma Sola three times a week, and those of the ' ' op- 
position line " at about the same intervals, so there is hardly a 
day without communication with the rest of the world. Just 
across the river from Palma Sola is Snead's Island, a long-, nar- 
row strip of land, which is cut off from the mainland by Terra 
Ceia Bay. This bay connects with Tampa Bav by a broad inlet, 
and with the Manatee River by a narrow channel known as 
" the cut-off," and it is a regular young paradise for a sports- 
man or a fisherman, and probably as beautiful a little piece of 
water as there is in the world. It is full of small mangrove 
islands that look like little green domes set down in the water, 
and on any day in the year you can sail through it and see 
from one million to a million and a half (by the census of 1880) 
of ducks, pelicans, and blue heron. There is some fine land 
for gardening on the shores of this bay, mostly in the hands of 
Northern men, and many of the early tomatoes we eat in New 
York, and early watermelons and other vegetables come from 
here, though Ave don't know it. These gardeners have far 
larger heads, to my mind, than the people who come down here 
to raise oranges. Tomatoes and potatoes are not so romantic, 
but they are much more profitable. In this climate vegetables 
can be ripened in any month of the year, and rates to New York 
are not high. Perhaps it is the preponderance of Northern 
people here that makes the place seem so homelike. The 
Warners, as I have said, are New-Englanders. Mr. Scott, who 
keeps the hotel is from " Terry Hut," and I think about nine 
men out of every ten within a radius of five miles are from 
somewhere in the North. But they vote the Democratic ticket 
with great unanimity, and you could count the Republicans on 
your fingers. There has to be something, I suppose, to keep 
the place from being perfect, and a Democratic majority is 
good for this purpose. With its glorious climate, its perfect 
healthfulness, its abundance of fruits and other good things, 
and its exceptionally good society for such a new country, 
Palma Sola might be mistaken for the Garden of Eden; only 
one could hardly imagine the Eden district coming in with a 
Democratic majority. A new-comer here is always sure at 



"AS OTHEBS SEE ITS." 65 

least of " a good living," unless he gets too lazy to go fishing. 
With fish hustling each other's shoulders in the water; with 
oysters growing on the trees; with fruits growing wild; with 
birds coining up to the back door and making friendly calls, a 
man could hardly starve here if he tried. It is a great tempta- 
tion to branch off and write something about the fishing in and 
around the Manatee River, but I have a great collection of fish- 
ing and alligator shooting experiences to tell and must save 
them for another time. One of the great attractions of this 
part of Florida, and indeed its very greatest after its climate 
and its healthfulness, is the fact of its being out of the usual 
routes of winter travel. The ' ' tourist " does not get here. 
Our dear friend with weak lungs and a consumption bottle is 
nowhere to be seen. You can go about all day in a flannel 
shirt and eat your dinner without brushing your hair, which is 
a great blessing. No doubt the New York invalid will find it 
out in time, but at present he alternately shivers and roasts at 
Jacksonville, and occupies his spare moments, when he is not 
telling his intimate friends the latest news from Lung Valley, in 
trying to find something tropical. The west coast of Florida is 
about as little known as any part of the United States. I felt 
almost like a discoverer when I landed at Palma Sola, but others 
had been here before me; unfortunately I even found that a 
fellow-townsman of mine in New Jersey, Mr. J. M. Atwater, of 
Crawford, owned several large tracts on the banks of the 
Manatee; Mr. J. H. Hobbs, a Virginia capitalist, from Wheeling, 
also owns some land here. The Florida land boom has not yet 
reached the Gulf coast, but it is creeping over. Last fall it got 
to Tampa, 30 miles from here, when the railroad was completed 
to that place. When it does come, and some New Yorkers 
come over here and break the way, people will wonder why 
they didn't come here long ago, and it will be a cold day for 
the St. John's River bonanzas. The soil is not as good here as 
it is along the St. John's. There is no use of any land-owner 
contesting this fact. But everybody who is acquainted with 
tropical countries know that rich soil means fever and sick- 
ness, and that sandy soil is a guarantee of healthfulness. This 
rule holds good throughout the entire West Indies. Cuba, 



66 "as othebs see us. " 

Jamaica, and a narrow strip of Mexico lying along the Gulf 
have as rich soils as any countries in the world, and they are 
full of deadly fevers. The only healthy West India islands are 
the rocky and comparatively sterile ones. There are spots of 
rich soil here sufficient for gardening and orange groves, good 
pieces of " hammock land," as the natives call it, but the great 
bulk of the soil is sandy. There is plenty of health here, and 
consequently happiness. You get np before sunrise, you go to 
bed soon after dark, you go to the table every time with the 
appetite of a shark, and you wonder what in the world it is that 
makes } r ou feel so well. I never saw or heard of this country 
till two weeks ago. It may be a disgrace either to my old 
schoolmasters or to me, but I don't think that until two weeks 
ago I had ever even heard the name of Palma Sola, or Charlotte 
Harbor. It was good fortune (and the yacht Mallory) that 
brought me here, for after visiting nearly all the warm countries 
frequented by Americans — Cuba, Mexico, Bermuda, Yucatan, 
Texas, Louisiana, and many of the smaller West India islands 
— I like the west coast of Florida best of all. 

W. D. 



THE FISHING IN FLORIDA. 



EXPLORATIONS ON A DESERT ISLAND. 



THE CHAEGE OF THE* FRIGHTENED FIDDLERS A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER 

WITH A SHEEPSHEAD INDIAN MOUNDS AND 

PALMETTO HOUSES. 



Palma Sola, Fla. , Feb. 23. — Somewhere in the dim past I re- 
member a schoolmaster telling- me that knowledge is of two 
kinds — that which you have and that which you know where to 
get. On the same principle boats are of two kinds — those that 
you have and those that you know where to borrow. By this 
generous rule our fleet at Palma Sola consists of three boats. 
First, there is Mr. Curtis's little skiff, very sharp and narrow, 
barely large enough to carry one fat man or two lean ones; 
Landlord Scott's boat, that on moonlight evenings sometimes 
carries a good round dozen of passengers up the river on a pic- 
nic, and Mr. Warner's row-boat, large but light and very easily 
handled. One of these three is always to be obtained, and 
there is never any lack of boats. A man might as well be out 
on the plains without a horse as to be in Palma Sola without a 
boat. The river is the great highway leading to every place 
worth going to, and all communication is by water. This is a 
very different state of affairs from what it would be in the 
North, where ice would obstruct the w T ay through half the year; 
for here on Christmas morning, or any other morning, if row- 
ing proves too warm you can roll overboard and take a swim. 
A new-comer is naturally a little timid about swimming among 
the sharks and alligators, which are supposed to inhabit the 
waters ; but the peaceable habits of these beasts are shown by 



68 "as others see us." 

the fact that the natives bathe in the deepest water without 
being harmed. *On my first morning in Manatee County I bor- 
rowed Mr. Curtis's little boat and pulled over to have a look at 
Snead's Island, just across the river, and as tins was the first of my 
excursions by water around Palma Sola, and as each trip offered 
many novel features of its own that must not be confounded 
with any other trip, I will set them out in chapters by them- 
selves, like the seven voyages of Sindbad the Sailor. For I am 
surrounded with such an atmosphere of sheepshead, row-boats, 
alligators, and trolling-lines it will require the greatest care to 
keep them from getting all in a tangle. 

AMONG THE FIDDLERS. 

Shirt, trousers, and hat are all the clothes a man wants to 
go fishing in here in the middle of winter, and the thinner they 
are the better. With garments that will not be injured by being 
wet, and with pantaloons rolled up above the knees, the fisher- 
man is ready for business, for Florida waters are full of sand 
bars, and it is often necessary to step out of the boat and pull 
her along. Snead's Island is about two miles long and perhaps 
half a mile wide in the broadest part. You could make a very 
good outline of it by setting down on the top of a triangle so 
as to mash it out of shape, and flatten down the point. One 
end of the island, a sharp, sandy point, projects into Tampa 
Bay. The other end, also a sharp point, is at the " cut-off," which 
connects Terra Ceia Bay and the Manatee River. A little to the 
right of the middle the island widens into a third point, which 
projects into the river. Terra Ceia Bay is behind the island 
and the Manatee River is in front of it. But three lines will 
make a map of it which will tell the story better than words : 



Terra Ceia Bay. 
Snead's Mand. 

Tampa Bay. 

Manatee River. Cattle Whaif. 




" AS OTHERS SEE ITS. 



G9 






Along the entire front of the island, from Tampa Bay to the 
cut-off, is a white-sand beach, with a fringe of shells beautiful 
to look at and grand for bathing purposes. At the point where 
the cattle wharf is the water is so deep that the largest ships 
can go up to it. From the wharf to the cut-off the shore is 
lined with a thick growth of mangrove trees, with only here and 
there a little opening. I headed my boat for the cattle wharf, 
which is directly opposite Palma Sola, the river here being 
about a mile wide, and then paddled along shore, enjoying the 
dark-green mangrove trees, the white-sand bottom under the 
clear water, and the occasional wreck of a schooner or oyster 
boat half buried in the beach. I came upon a place where 
there was an opening among the trees, disclosing a broad strip 
of land covered with scrub palmettoes, and beyond this a clus- 
ter of tall pines, each tree long and straight enough to make a 
flag-staff. Here I determined to land, to have a look at the 
island, and headed my boat for the shore. When she was 20 
or 30 feet from the beach her nose ran into the sand, and I had 
to step out and shove her along. But that didn't matter, for 
my shoes and stockings were under the stern seat, and the 
water was warm and pleasant. Tying the painter to the de- 
scending branch of a mangrove tree, I made my way carefully 
through the trees to a strip of smooth sand that lay beyond, 
exercising great skill in dodging the sharp shells that lay all 
about and the pointed ends of mangrove sprouts, not more than 
three inches high, that were growing everywhere. There was 
not a house nor a living being in sight— nothing to be seen but 
mangroves, palmettoes, pines and sand, with occasionally a 
bunch of oysters sticking to the roots of a tree down at the 
water's edge. It was such a jungle that I involuntarily picked 
up a stick to defend myself against any stray tigers or panthers 
that might come along, and started up the coast barefooted to 
have a look at the soil. I found it principally sand, with a rich 
topping of decayed vegetable matter sufficient to make it pro- 
ductive. 

I was just about to return to the boat to continue my voyage 
when I was startled by a rustling in the creeping plants through 
which I was walking. One hears so many snake stories in 



70 "as others see us." 

Florida my first thought was of them; but there was no snake 
in sight. The rushing, however, continued and grew louder. 
It was like a flock of frightened birds trying to make their way 
through a thicket, but there were no birds in sight. The noise 
came nearer to me, and I ran out to the strip of sand that lay 
between the bushes and the mangrove trees. I was hardly 
there before the cause of the racket came along to, crossed the 
sand, and made for the roots of the mangroves. It was an army 
of black bugs, each from an inch to two inches long and half as 
wide. They were so thick that the ground was black with 
them, for they were black, or nearly black, with thick legs, and 
traveled over the ground about as fast as a man could run. There 
were millions and millions of them ; I might say billions, and then 
not come within a few millions of the true number. But there 
were so many at any rate that they shook all the bushes, and 
made a noise like a rustling wind. I was freshly out of Arkan- 
saw, where I had spent a considerable portion of my time in 
dodging the deadly tarantulas, and these beasts looked very 
much like them, so I thought of tarantulas. I was barefooted, 
and they were crawling over my feet. With great deliberation 
I concluded to leave that part of the country. Under the cir- 
cumstances I consider half a second "great deliberation," and 
at the end of that time I made my first deliberate and dignified 
move, which was a jump of about 15 feet, and then calmly 
walked the rest of the way down to the beach, seven or eight 
feet to the step, walking over and crushing a few thousand of 
the little wretches every time I put down a foot. The black 
space covered by the beasts was at least a quarter of an acre in 
extent, and I fooled away no time in getting out of it and reach- 
ing the beach. The bugs were frightened to death by the noise 
I had been making in the bushes and were trying their level 
best to reach their holes among the roots of the mangrove 
trees; and I was scared by the bugs; so with mutually trying to 
get away from each other we had a lively time. If I had had 
shoes on I think I might possibly have staid and made a fight of 
it. But being barefooted in the bushes makes a man timid 
here among the spiders and snakes and 'gators. 

After rowing up into the " cut-off," and finding it very 



"as otheks see us." 71 

narrow and tortuous, lined with mangrove trees, their roots 
covered with oysters, and with wild ducks and blue heron in 
great abundance, I pulled up on the shore, around another 
point, and discovered a romantic little house in the midst of the 
palmettos, almost hidden in the verdure. It was evidently a 
fisherman's place, and I was thinking of paying it a visit, when 
I saw two or three naked children in swimming, which so 
shocked me that I headed the boat for home and soon reached 
the hotel. Of course, I had to find Mr. Curtis, and tell him of 
my encounter with the bugs. 

' Why," said he " they are fiddlers — fiddler crabs. They're 
just what I've been looking for ; the best bait in the world. I 
know there must be sheepshead around that old cattle wharf. 
Suppose we go and get some fiddlers this afternoon, and try 
for the sheepshead." 

" Agreed." 

UNDER THE CATTLE WHARF. 

Provided with a light wooden box, with a cover hung on 
leather hinges, we started immediately after dinner for my 
newly discovered fiddler ground, Mr. Curtis in his little skiff 
and I in Landlord Scott's boat. The fiddlers were not out in 
such large numbers as in the morning, but still there were 
plenty of them, and we soon had enough. We first put a quan- 
tity of moist sand in the box, and then " scooped " up the 
beasts with our hands wherever we could find them. They are 
harmless enough, except that if they catch your hand just 
right they can give you a pretty hard pinch with their princi- 
pal claw, and in handling single specimens you have to pick 
them up witl j thumb and forefinger in such a way as to hold 
their claws down, like holding a bird across the back and pin- 
ioning his wings. When we had enough for the afternoon's 
use we started for the cattle wharf and were soon there, wdnd 
and tide being in our favor. We pulled our boats up on the 
sandy beach, got out our lines and went out to the end of the 
wharf, which is soon to be replaced by a new one, being shaky 
with age and the spiles incrusted with barnacles. To a new 



72 "as otheks see us." 

hand at the business picking up the fiddlers to bait the hooks 
was not nice work at first. They look like dirty young lob- 
sters, and are not at all inviting, but it soon became easy 
enough, and we let our lines drop among the sunken spiles. It 
was soon evident that our sinkers were not heavy enough to 
combat the strong tide, and we pulled a lot of rusty spikes out 
of the rotten wharf, and tied them to some of the lines. After 
two or three minutes of anxious expectancy Mr. Curtis pulled 
in a beautiful sheepshead, weighing four or five pounds. This 
feat he followed soon after by catching a channel bass, not less 
than 2 feet in length. All this lime my line was hanging in the 
water like a broken fiddle-string, and not a fish came near it. 
I put on a cheerful face and said something about its being "my 
turn next," but inwardly I felt sure that my old fishing luck 
would stick to me, and that I would bave all the expectation and 
my partner all the fish. Presently I got into my boat and 
rowed out among the spiles, and braced the boat between two 
of them, to give the fish every chance in the world to eat my 
fiddler. But they spurned him, and I had not even a bite. 
Mr. Curtis had bite after bite and soon pulled in another 
sheepshead. Half an hour had passed and I had never a nibble, 
and was disgusted and tied my line to one of the posts and 
rowed up the beach to have a swim. This took at least half an 
hour, and when I got back Mr. Curtis had four sheepsheads 
and the channel bass. I was envious, but still disgusted, and 
started to pull in my line. It pulled hard. I gave it a jerk, 
thinking the hook was caught in one of the posts, and felt it 
give. I could hardly believe it, but there was certainly a fish 
on the hook. When he came to the surface he proved to be a 
fine big sheepshead, not less than a five-pounder, and the 
biggest we had seen yet. I hoisted him out of the water and 
he fought like a tiger. I had him in the bottom of the boat 
once and he got up and fought me again, and I think would 
certainly have got away, but I put out my left hand and 
grabbed him. Sheepshead, as you may know, have a row of 
" spines " along their back that they raise when excited and 
that are as sharp as needles. He set these to work at me and 
gave me a series of cuts across the hand that I still carry and 



"AS OTHERS SEE US." 73 

that soon covered me with blood. I pulled him back into the 
boat, but it was still a pretty even battle till I got hold of a 
small piece of board that lay in the bottom of the boat and 
pounded him over the nose with it till he took no more interest 
in tiddlers. Even after this he continued to fight me, and I had 
to pull up one of the seats and lay it on top of him and sit down 
on it. Ten minutes afterward, when I uncovered him to in- 
quire after his health, he fought me again, though his nose was 
all battered in and he must have had a sprained wrist. Fisher- 
men who like to catch " gamey " fish will be fully satisfied with 
these Florida sheepshead. 

The capture of this big fellow was, of course, an encour- 
agement to me, and I brought down more fiddlers and kept at 
work. At last I had "struck my gait," for I could not get my 
hook baited fast enough. It was no sooner in the water than 
some big sheepshead seized it and I pulled him in, and they 
all fought me just like the first one. I was barefooted and 
could not put my foot on them to hold them, but I made a 
practice of battering them over the nose with my board as fast 
as they came in and then covering them with the seat and sit- 
ting on them. They took our fiddlers very fast, and, at length, 
we ran out of bait and had to go home to supper. When we 
wound up our lines Mr. Curtis had 11 sheepshead and 1 chan- 
nel bass, and I had 9 sheepshead — the sheepshead averaging 
from three to five pounds each. More than satisfied with the 
afternoon's work, we took a drink and started for home ; not 
out of the traditional flask that fishermen are supposed to carry, 
but out of the " water-monkey," full of pure spring water. The 
water-monkey is a very useful tropical institution, something 
like a big earthen jug, but slightly different in shape, and no- 
body goes out for a day's boating without one. You put your 
" monkey " in a shady place, where the breeze can strike it, 
and the water keeps as cool as if just out of the spring. If you 
are thoughtful you put a few lumps of sugar in your pocket 
from the hotel sugar-bowl, and as you can stop almost any- 
where and pick fresh limes, you have all the materials for the 
most refreshing drink to be made on a hot day. Our 20 sheeps- 
head supplied the hotel table for several days, though we all ate 



74 "as otheks see us." 

largely of them, for the sheepshead^ is the most delicious 
fish caught in any water, with the possible exception of the 
pompano. 

That evening, I fear, we made a slight crack in the truth. 
All the stay-at-home guests in the hotel were astonished at what 
they called " our luck " (we called it our skill), and wanted to 
know where we caught them. But we had discovered a fine 
fishing-ground and were not disposed to take the public into 
our confidence, so we told them " over in Terra Ceia Bay," " in 
the Cat Off," and in a dozen places we had not visited. But 
these answers did them just as well as the truth and gratified 
their curiosity. Then followed a grand finale for such a day's 
sport — a hearty supper, two pipes, and nine hours of sound 
sleep. 

AT PALMETTO POINT. 

Palmetto Point is a place not to be found on the maps. 
The point is there, just where the Manatee River runs into 
Tampa Bay, on the side nearest the Gulf; but it has no name 
and I have given it this name because there are on the point 
several palmetto houses, used by the fishermen who draw their 
seines there. We were told about these palmetto houses at 
the hotel, and one morning Mr. Curtis and I started out to visit 
them — he in his skiff and I in Mr. Warner's row T -boat. Just 
around the point from the fishery, facing on Tampa Bay, is a very 
large Indian shell mound, where curious shells and pieces of 
Indian stoneware are found, and we could go to both places at 
the same time. We passed on the way down my own private 
bathing ground, which I claim by right of discovery. This is 
a smooth, sloping beach of beautiful white sand not 200 yards 
from the hotel, so nicely protected by a high bluff that you can 
go there at any hour of any day in the year and enjoy a bath 
in the greatest privacy, with the warm sun beating down upon 
you, and have the water any depth you want it, from 2 inches 
to 50 feet. We went around the point first, past the fishery, 
and landed at the shell mound and climbed the steep part to 
its top. It is 30 or 40 feet high, built entirely of shells that 
have lain here so long that the outer ones have crumbled to 



"as others SEE F r 

pieces, and the whole surface is c^. iJike 

all the other shell mounds, it has a largo • . , out of its 

summit. These shell mounds are counted an ftg the curiosi- 
ties of Florida. There are large numbers of them throughout 
the State, and a great many in Manatee County. Opinions 
differ as to what they are, and how they got here. They vary 
in size from a few feet in diameter to a quarter of an acre, and 
from 10 to 40 feet in height. They are made of oyster shells, 
clam shells, conch shells, and the shells of all the # water-drinking 
beasts that frequent these waters. Some people think they 
were washed up by the eddying tides; but Mr. Warner, who 
has given some attention to the matter, gave me an explanation 
of them that seems very reasonable. He pointed out the cu- 
rious fact that every conch shell in the mounds has a small hole 
drilled in its side in just about the same position as if it had 
been made to draw the animal out of his shell. His theory is 
that the Indians gathered at these places on state occasions to 
hold their feasts, and that these shells are the remains. I have 
not heard of anything of interest being found in them beyond 
a few arrow-heads and some rude bits of Indian pottery. I am 
carefully saving a curious arrow-head we picked up on the 
beach made out of an enormous shark's tooth, which from long- 
exposure to the air and water has ( turned into a substance 
resembling stone. It is reasonable to think that the Indians 
had some good way of getting the conch out of his shell, for it 
is no easy matter. The modern way is to stick a fish-hook in 
the animal and hang him to the limb of a tree. As his muscles 
weaken he comes out inch by inch, and the process takes two 
or three days. It is a cruel practice, and takes a hard-hearted 
person to do it. I know a lady who found a handsome conch- 
sheU on the beach, with the living animal inside of it, and hung 
him up to a lime tree in the back yard. In the evening she 
went out to look at him, and he was just beginning to come 
out. She went to bed and dreamed that the conch had got out 
of his shell and was crawling up on the bed to bite her. This 
so alarmed her that she went out in the middle of the night, 
took out "the hook and threw the conch overboard, and a fine 
story that conch had to tell his companions when he got back, 



76 "as others see us. 

but of course none of them would believe him. However, 
whether the Indians opened the oysters and killed the concha, 
or whether the conchs killed the Indians and ate the oysters, or 
the clams ate the conchs and killed the oysters, the mounds are 
here just the same, and they are almost the only high points in 
this part of Florida. This one near Palmetto Point is just at 
the water's edge, and a high tide frequently washes out peculiar 
shells and bits of queer Indian pottery. From the quantity of 
broken Indian jugs found in all these mounds, I think the 
Indians after finishing their feasts must have wound up with a 
grand spree and broken all their crockery. There is a fine view 
of Tampa Bay and the Egmont Lighthouse from this large 
mound, and all the steamers that go into Palma Sola have to go 
directly by it. While Mr. Curtis was admiring the mound and 
looking for shells I took my boat and went down the coast, out 
toward the Gulf. I rowed past a large number of mangrove 
islands, almost around to Palma Sola Bay. The water was so 
clear I could see thousands of fish, and there were enough birds 
around to start a museum. Some of them were of great size, 
and they were all so tame that I could row almost up to them 
as they sat on the water without frightening them. One old 
fellow in particular was so big that at first I thought he was a 
hogshead floating, and so tame that I was within a dozen yards 
of him before he took wing. He was fully as large as four big- 
turkeys put together, and looked something like a man with 
wings, only his nose was rather too large, being something like 
8 or 10 inches long. I rowed back to the mound and joined 
Mr. Curtis, and together we visited Palmetto Point, where the 
palmetto houses are. There are four of these buildings, each as 
large as an ordinary house, and all built entirely of palmetto- 
roof and Avails— without a nail in any of them. The fishermen 
use them for drying, cleaning, and curing houses, and very good 
houses they make. To build such a house the builder goes into 
the woods and cuts such poles as he wants, of a length to suit 
his building, and ties them together with cords, making a frame- 
work to hang his palmettoes on. The palmetto leaves are then 
tied in place, layer upon layer, like shingles, making a thatch 
that no rain can beat through nor no heat or cold can penetrate. 



"AS OTHERS SEE 08." 77 

Such a house cost just the price of the cord and the labor, and 
lasts 15 or 20 years. Each of these houses had a smooth, white, 
sand floor, and any one of them would make a comfortable 
dwelling. In front of them, at the point, the bank runs down 
so suddenly that a ship drawing 20 feet of water could come up 
within six feet of the shore. When we reached home again 
after a long pull against a strong head wind we were just in 
time for dinner, and just in time to meet Mr. Warner with an 
invitation to go up the river with him next day in his steam 
launch to shoot alligators — an invitation that of course we 
gladly accepted. W. D. 



AMONG THE ALLIGATORS. 



TWENTY-FIVE MILES UP THE MANATEE RIVER 



Palma Sola, Fla., Feb. 25. — I had long desired to see a real 
live and lively alligator. Not a puny orphan, such as one some- 
times sees shedding tears in an aquarium; nor down-hearted 
beasts like those in the tank at the New Orleans Spanish Fort; 
but an alligator on his native heath, looking for prey. They had 
been promised in the trip down the Red River, but the weather 
was too cold, and there was not one in sight. Then they told 
us that the bayou at Palma Sola was a great place for them, and 
we looked expectantly behind every bush, but without results. 
This trip with Mr. Warner in his steam-launch Alice, however, 
was to be up the Manatee River, "right into the alligator 
country." We might even see and kill a manatee, or sea-cow, 
though the chances of this were somewhat doubtful, as it is 10 
years or more since one has been killed here. But alligators 
were to be so thick " you can't throw a stone against the bank 
without hitting one, Sir!" And this was true enough; not 
because of the number of alligators, but because there are no 
stones in this part of the world. I could not fairly realize this 
queer fact till the day that Mr. Curtis and I were fishing off 
the cattle wharf. Our sinkers were too light, and I volunteered 
to go ashore and get some stones. But I searched the beach in 
vain; there was not even a pebble — nothing but shells and sand. 
Mr. Warner was about to make a trip to his lumber camp at 
Fort Hamer, 15 miles or so up the river, and intended afterwards 
to go still further up the stream, and he kindly invited all the 
guests in the hotel to go with him. We numbered just eight in 
the hotel at that time, including three ladies. There were Mr. 



"as others see us." 79 

and Mrs. Curtis, a young gentleman waiting for a chance to get 
to Sarasota, and a Mr. Ingersoll and his party of two ladies and 
a colored man servant, from somewhere in the Northwest. Mr. 
Ingersoll bad arrived at the hotel a few days before with such a 
stock of tents and sheet-iron stoves and trunks and gun cases, 
and fishing-tackle, be looked like a May moving in New York- 
He had chartered a boat at Cedar Keys, and was waiting for it 
to come along and take him and his party down the coast to 
Sarasota, or Charlotte Harbor, or anywhere the wind listed — 
"anywhere, by — ," as he eloquently expressed it, " where the 
weather's warm!" He had just come out of a temperature of 
20° below zero in the North, and was not yet thawed out, so he 
still wore an overcoat and gloves; while the rest of us were 
sweltering in the thinnest linen. Mr. Ingersoll is a character, 
and this is my excuse for making public property of him, and 
trying to photograph him — a character of a kind you never meet 
at the fashionable resorts on the St. John's, and run across only 
seldom here on the wilder west coast. He is a leviathan, to 
begin with; weighing somewhere in the neighborhood of 300, 
and is always careful about trusting his weight in a small boat- 
He had not been here 12 hours before he had all the mechanics 
in the place at work for him, adding to his stock of camping 
materials. The carpenter was chartered to make him a fish-trap 
and a lot of tent-pins, the sail-maker to make him a new tent, and 
the blacksmith to make him a shark hook, with a chain 6 feet 
long. He stored his property in a little building near the hotel, 
and, from a moment's visit to the place yesterday, I can remem- 
ber a large tent with iron-bound poles, three trunks, a sheet 
iron stove, a lot of camp stools, three guns, and several large 
boxes. There were also the remains of a Dutch oven, which 
had been broken in transit, and this accident nearly broke Mr. 
Ingersoll's heart. He set out one morning to find another, and 
scoured the whole country, and at last came back with one — a 
second hand one, which he had bought at some farm house. His 
man told me that this assortment of goods was only a few odd 
bits selected from a large roomful of hunting and camping 
equipage, and it was currently reported that the total result of 
his nine winters of shooting in Florida was one tame duck, but 



80 "as others see us. 

this may have been a libel. His enthusiasm, at any rate, is in 
proportion to his weight, and he started on the alligator trip 
with a rifle and a trolling line, and half a bushel of crackers for 
lunch. But they did better for us than this at the hotel, and put h 
up a substantial dinner; and by 10 o'clock in the morning we 
were off. The deck of the launch was about six feet below the 
level of the wharf, and perhaps the liveliest "part of the day's 
sport was seeing Mr. Ingersoll get aboard. It reminded me of 
the old school-book story of the elephant crossing a bridge- 
putting one foot on it carefully first, shaking it, and then draw- 
ing back and shaking his head. Mr. Ingersoll was sure at first 
that the Alice would not support his weight; then he was 
satisfied that he never could get down to her, and at last he 
gritted his teeth and swung himself carefully over the edge of 
the wharf. 

"Now four or five of you," he shouted, "get down there 
astern, while I drop on the forward deck." 

We obeyed his instructions, and he came safely aboard and 
we were off. The Alice is a handsome little launch, drawing 4 
or 5 feet of water, with a cabin and a cockpit aft-, the engine and 
boiler amidships, and the pilot-house in a sort of well, with a 
roof over it, so that the man at the wheel stands on a level 
several feet lower than the deck. In front of this is a small for- 
ward deck. We steamed up the river without incident past 
Braidentown, Fogartyville and Manatee, and reached Fort 
Hamer, where Ave were to make a stop, without seeing any 
alligators. Mr. Curtis and Mr. Ingersoll put out a trolling line, 
but up to this point did not catch any fish. At Fort Hamer 
several men were watching for us on the river bank, among 
them the foreman of the loggers, who had come down from the 
camp several miles in the interior, and thus saved us consider- 
able delay. I looked around for the fort, but saw nothing of it- 
There was not a building of any kind in sight. Upon making 
inquiries I learned that the fort disappeared many years ago, 
soon after the close of the Indian wars, and that its title now 
sticks to the place only by courtesy. This is the case with all 
the Florida forts, so I hear. Looking on the Florida map you 
see a large number of little crosses scattered about the State 



"as others see us. " 81 

and each cross is supposed to represent a fort. But the forts, 
like the Indians, have disappeared, and there is nothing left hut 
their names. As we were about to re-embark at Fort Hamer, 
to continue our journey, Mr. Warner sniffed the air and said 
that there was either a rattlesnake or an alligator about, as he 
smelled the peculiar musky scent that attaches to both. But 
we saw neither, and went on. Above Fort Hamer the Manatee 
River narrows down into a little stream and the water looks 
black. As the sun had now been up long enough to make the 
ground warm we were told that we might expect to see alligators 
at any minute. I stationed myself on the forward deck armed 
with a large 38-calibre revolver, and I had to lie down flat, so 
that the pilot could see over me. In the pilot-house with Mr. 
Warner were Mr. IngersolTs two ladies, who were enjoying the 
novelty of the scenery. We were hardly a mile above the fort 
before Mr. Warner shouted : 

" There's an alligator on the right bank !" 
Sure enough, there he sat, a big fellow, sunning himself 
among the taU grass, which he had trampled down. We were 
too far from him to expect to hit him with a revolver, but I 
dropped a ball over in his direction, and he lost no time in 
slipping into the water. We were close to the left bank, and 
in a minute more I saw an immense fellow there, directly op- 
posite us, not more than 20 feet away. Even at this short 
range I had not much hope of hitting him in any vulnerable 
part with a revolver, but thought I might tickle him a little. 
Only by patting a ball into one of his eyes or directly behind 
one of his front legs could I hope to kill him. But I let fly on 
general principles and had better luck than I expected. The 
'gator rolled half over, recovered himself and slid off the 
bank into the water. He headed directly for the launch, and 
in less than five seconds was within three or four feet of us. 
The two ladies in the pilot-house thought he intended to climb 
aboard, and indeed it did look very much like it. They set up 
a scream that was enough to frighten an alligator to death 
and made a scramble for the door on the opposite side, where, 
in trying to get through both together, they stuck, and the 
sudden shifting of cargo nearly capsized the launch. The 



82 "AS OTHERS SEE US." 

alligator, when his slimy head was nearly against the boat's 
side, let himself sink and disappeared and we saw him no more. 
From this time forward, all the way up the river, alligators 
were quite as thick as we had been told. There was some 
sport in firing at them and making the big rascals get up and 
run, even with slim chances of hitting them. At a very moder- 
ate estimate we saw two or three hundred alligators on this 
trip. Most of them were very large ones and looked as if they 
could make a brave fight. It is a common saying that they 
will run away from a white man, but stay and fight a negro ; 
how much truth there may be in it I do not'know. The natives 
here seem to have no fear of them, but when they come in the 
way take a fence-rail or a club and drive them off, There is 
hardly anything to keep them from multiplying, for people do 
not take the trouble to kill them, 'except such visitors as go out 
and shoot them for fun. Some tender-hearted people who have 
never seen an alligator may think it cruel fun to go out and 
shoot them uselessly. But if they should see one they would 
change their minds. Just as everybody hates a snake, or as 
sailors hate sharks, so there is a natural feeling against alliga- 
tors ; and the first thought upon seeing one is to kill him ; 
unless, indeed, you are a little timid and first think of getting 
away from him. They look veiy much like big snakes ; and I 
venture to say that even Mr. Henry Bergh, sailing up the Man- 
atee Biver with a rifle in his hands, would blaze away at the 
first 'gator he saw. 

I had the alligator field all to myself, for just as we got 
into the thickest of them the fish began to bite, and all the other 
gentlemen gave their attention to trolling. We had only two 
lines along, but these two kept the other three gentlemen busy, 
for the fish bit as fast as they could get the lines out, and in a 
short time the cock-pit was so full of them the fishermen had to 
stand up on the seats. They were fine large fish, locally known 
as "Jacks." I do not know their proper name, but they were 
from two to two and a half feet long, weighing from four to 
eight pounds each, with a forked tail looking very much like 
that of a mackerel. It was no easy work hauling in such big- 
fellows, and before long all the fishermen were complaining 



"as otheks see us." 83 

of sore hands. I had already put my hands in such a condition 
that nothing could make them worse, having worn them into 
holes with pulling in fish and hacked and hewed them with 
knives, so I was able to listen to these complaints with the air 
of a veteran, merely giving the same humane advice that was 
given me, to wash each fresh cut in salt water " to take the 
poison out." This, of course, smarts so that it keeps a man 
dancing a hornpipe for half an hour. As we approached 
Manatee on the homeward trip we saw a flock of ducks sitting 
on the water. Mr. Warner headed the boat for them and Mr. 
Ingersoll brought out his shot-gun. The latter was already in 
a state of enthusiastic excitement over the fishing, and he hoped 
to add a new leaf to his laurel wreath by bringing down a duck. 
He immediately went through the interesting performance 
usual to city sportsmen. The gun was in a heavy leather case, 
which had to be unstrapped. Then it was in several pieces, 
which had to be put together. The cartridges were in another 
case, which also had to be unstrapped, and by the time he had 
looked down the barrel to see that no eels or snakes had crawled 
in, examined the hammer, and put in the cartridge, the ducks 
might have been a mile away if they had known anything. But 
they were foolish ducks, or perhaps they knew Mr. Ingersoll, 
and had confidence in his inability to hit them, so they 
sat still. The boat continued to approach them, and he fired 
before they rose, and then they took the hint and flew away, 
every one of them. Mr. Ingersoll was explaining that he knew 
they were out of range, when one of them unexpectedly 
dropped, and we went over to it and gathered it in. The young 
man, who was on his way to Sarasota whispered to me that 
there never was a bigger surprised man in the world than Mr. 
Ingersoll when that duck dropped; but he wiped his gun with 
great complacency, and put it away with the air of a man who 
has done his whole duty. The sun was well down by this time, 
and we reached home by moonlight and went into the store 
and got two large gunny bags to carry the fish up to the hotel. 
It took four men to carry them. This is not a fish story, but 
solid truth. 

One day soon after the alligator hunt Mr. Curtis and I or- 



84 "as others see us." 

ganized an excursion to Egmont Key, to visit the light-house. 
The Key is 10 or 12 miles away, about the centre of the mouth 
of Tampa Bay, and we chartered a good-sized sloop, manned 
by a jolly old Welsh tar with a very red face. The party con- 
sisted of Mr. and Mrs. Curtis, Mrs. Scott, our landlady, and 
myself. Such a move as this in picnicking is worth the genius 
of Jay Gould, for, by taking your landlady along, you at once 
" make }'ourself solid " with the hotel, and need have no fear 
of a vacuum in the lunch-basket. With a great water-monkey 
full of cool water, a good store of limes and sugar, and a fat bas- 
ket just full of pies and sandwiches, eggs and tarts, guava jelly 
and light biscuits, to say nothing of a little " filling-in " of 
crackers and cheese; with a good boat, a good crew, a fair 
wind, and a bright, sunshiny day, we had everything to make 
us happy. The boat had no cabin, but a large cock -pit, and 
some old sails spread on the floor of this made us comfortable 
seats. The wind, indeed, was a little too fresh, blowing so 
hard that we received several warnings that we had 
better not start. But we were in for it and bound to go; so 
Landlord Scott's boat was hitched behind for a tender, and we 
set sail. I natter myself that it was I who insisted upon taking 
the small boat along, somewhat contrary to the desires of the 
rest of the party ; for, as it turned out, the row-boat was all 
that saved us from having to spend the night upon the briny 
deep. We started for the mouth of the river at a lively rate, 
and began to think we were going to get a wetting outside, but 
while we were talking about it the wind suddenly died out and 
left us drifting lazily into Tampa Bay. Within five minutes 
the weather changed from a stiff breeze into almost a dead 
calm. Our jolly old tar told us there was no use trying to 
reach Egmont Light; that it would take us all day to get there, 
with no telling when we would get back. But couldn't we go 
somewhere else? This" is one of the beauties always attending 
a trip in a sail-boat. Very likely } r ou won't get to the place 
you start for, but you can go somewhere else. Wherever the 
wind directs, that must be your destination. Some of the 
party had never been in Terra Ceia Bay, and the rest of 
us wanted to see more of it, and we asked the tar whether he 



"AS OTHERS SEE US." 85 

could take us there. Yes, lie thought he could heat into Terra 
Ceia Bay, and immediately set ahout it. It was slow work, 
making our way into it, and seemed to me to occupy five or six 
hours, though it really was not more than an hour or two. The 
time seemed so long, not because drifting before this light 
breeze and lounging on the warm sails and puffing at a pipe 
was not pleasant, but because I had a longing eye on the din- 
ner-basket. I proposed at one point that we should eat, but 
the rest of the party scorned such a proposition, and the ladies 
said we ought not to eat " before we were in Terra Ceia Bay, 
anyhow. " So I waited patiently for the old ship to drift into 
our dining-room. When she did at last get there our appe- 
tites were up to the razor-edge stage, and we enjoyed the 
boiled eggs and the beautiful scenery together. Terra Ceia 
Bay is a peculiar piece of water, suddenly spreading out into a 
broad lake, as suddenly contracting into a narrow channel, and 
then widening out again. At the end of it nearest Tampa Bay 
its shores are lined with broad belts of mangrove trees, whose 
foliage is so thick and green that they look like beautifully 
sloping lawns. The whole bay is dotted with mangrove 
islands, each island a dark green dome. I have never seen 
anything like it anywhere, and its very novelty makes it attrac- 
tive. It is somewhat as if all the Thousand Islands in the St. 
Lawrence were covered with thick green foliage. You sail up 
before an apparently unbroken line of these islands, and it 
looks as if you were going straight ashore, but your bold navi- 
gator finds an opening, takes the boat through it, and you are 
in another big bay, larger than the first, and have to make 
another such manoeuvre to get out of it, and unexpectedl}' find 
yourself in a third open place ; so you keep along for miles . Luck- 
ily for us we were not lost in this part of the bay, as we soon 
afterward were in a part we were better acquainted with, or we 
might yet be subsisting on mangrove oysters and palmetto 
cabbages, and I doubt whether we would ever have found our 
way out. We sailed on, very slowly and comfortably, till we 
were near what I should take to be the upper end of the bay, 
within sight of a number of houses on the shore. The sailor 



86 "AS OTHERS SEE US." 

told us who lived in them, and said that one of the places be- 
longed to Howard & Kennedy, who recently bought some land 
here, and began market-gardening on a large scale. We all 
had some curiosity to see a Florida market-garden, and it was 
unanimously decided to pay Messrs. Howard & Kennedy a 
visit. The wind had come up again into something like its 
former glory, and when we dropped anchor in front of the place 
there were white-caps on the beach. We saw before us a hand- 
some place, with a long stretch of fencing, a comfortable 
dwelling-house, and down by the water a novelty that at once 
attracted our attention — a roof of palmetto thatch, supported at 
the corners by four large palmetto trees, and without walls. 
In this climate such a house answers every purpose for a barn, 
or any out-building, and is at once cheap, durable, and hand- 
some. There were a number of small boats at anchor in front 
of the place, and what we could see of it from the water made 
us all anxious to pay it a visit. We embarked in our row- 
boat — we four passengers — and were soon disappointed to find 
that we could not approach within 50 yards of the shore on 
account of the shallow water. It was out of the question to 
carry the two ladies over this gap; so, after trying in vain to 
find deep water at several places, we were compelled to give it 
up, and went back to the sloop. W T hen we reached her we 
found her hard and fast aground. But our gallant crew did 
not mind a little thing like this; he quietly stepped overboard 
into water nearly waist deep, shoved the sloop further away 
from shore, and helped us aboard. As we were 10 or 15 miles 
away from home, and the afternoon was rapidly wearing itself 
awa} r , we voted to start for Palma Sola, but this was a matter 
entirely beyond our reach. The second spurt of wind had died 
out, and we were once more becalmed. There was indeed 
enough breeze left to carry us along at the rate of about a mile 
an hour, but this was tedious work, and bade fan to keep us out 
till late at night. In an hour or two, after we had progressed 
a mile or two, I grew tired of such monotonous business, and 
stepped into the skiff and started off alone for a row. The sun 
was just about to set, and millions and millions of birds that 
occupy cheap lodgings on the islands of Terra Ccia Bay were 



"AS OTHEKS SEE US." 87 

taking the rapid transit line for home. I should be almost 
afraid to say anything definite about the numbers of birds I 
saw, ducks, gulls, herons and many kinds that were strange to 
me, for it might strain the* reader's imagination after the true 
fish stories I have told. But it is no exaggeration, at any rate, 
to say that there were a thousand times as many as all the rest 
I ever saw in my life. They came home in long strings, V 
shaped, so long that sometimes the ends of the V were lost in 
the horizon. In one of these rows I counted 700 birds, but as 
there were still several miles more of them I gave it up. 
There was a curious-looking bit of shore, not far away, lined 
with big palmetto trees, and I rowed over to it. As the sun 
went down entirely, and darkness began to make itself visible, 
the drum-fish came out of their lairs and played their 
melancholy tunes under my boat's bottom. They sounded, at 
least, as if they were under the boat, but I was not able to 
make them out. As the darkness increased their sound was so 
funereal that it almost frightened me. They are well named, 
for nothing could better describe their noise than to say that 
it sounds like a big bass drum struck under water. I don't 
know whether it was the same fish following my boat, but 
imagined that it was, and he kept good time with me, letting 
me take about three strokes, and then coming in with his bass 
"boom." Occasionally some other drum-fish would join in, but 
generally my own private drummer had the field to himself. I 
had noticed, while it was lighter, that a long narrow fish of a 
peculiar shape was following the stern of my boat. I had 
struck at him several times with an oar, but he merely dodged, 
and continued to follow me. The water, too, was becoming phos- 
phorescent in the dark, and at every stroke my ores splashed 
fire. So with the knowledge that the long, narrow fish was 
keeping up his surveillance over me, with the drums beating un- 
der my boat, and the water in a blaze on both sides, I confess 
that I felt more comfortable to head my skiff for the sloop; I 
didn't know but the next thing might be a water-spout or a 
great whirlpool, there seemed to be so many strange creatures in 
these Florida waters. The fish that followed by boat looked 
suspiciously like the "pilot fish" that precedes a shark. Getting 



88 "as others see its." 

back to the sloop just before dark I found the party in no wise 
alarmed, which rather surprised me, for our situation was 
awkward. Not that we were in any danger, but our friends in 
the hotel would be mourning for us. The ladies said there 
was no hurry, that there would be a breeze presently, so we 
finished the provisions in the dinner-basket, and sang a song. 
By that time it was genuinely dark, and the ladies began to feel 
uneasy. About 15 stars were out, but there was no moon. We 
were 12 or 15 miles from home by the way we had come, and 
about 3 miles by going through the " cut-off." But whether 
we could find the cut-off on such a dark night and pick it out 
from among the hundreds of false bays and inlets along 
the shore was a very open question. Failing to find the cut-off, 
we might also lose the sloop, and then we would be in a fine fix. 
We resolved, at all events, to take to the boat. 

[I notice that writers for the weekly story papers always 
break off in an interesting place, and this week I must follow 
their illustrious example, for this letter is already far too long, 
and our night ride on Terra Ceia Bay is one of my pet stories, 
and I am going not to spoil it by cutting it off short.] W. D. 



LOST ON TERM CEIA BAY. 



AN IMPROMPTU STUDY OF ASTRONOMY. 



STARS WANDERING ABOUT THE SKY HUNTING THE CUT-OFF FISHING 

BY TORCHLIGHT A VISIT TO TAMPA. 



Tampa, Fla., March 4. — We were on Terra Ceia Bay, be- 
calmed, with a sloop and a skiff, and a very dark night had just 
settled down upon us. Once or twice the moon made a feeble 
effort to shine, but each time a bank of clouds drifted over it ; per- 
haps a dozen stars were visible. Having determined to leave the 
sloop under the charge of our sailor and strike for home with the 
row-boat, we made preparations to start, and I was appointed navi- 
gating officer. I accepted the post with some misgivings, for it 
was no easy matter to find the "cut-off" on a dark night. People 
familiar with the Northern waters will think that, knowing the gen- 
eral direction, we ought to find it without trouble ; but 
here the shores are different. Terra Ceia Bay is fringed with a 
thousand little bays and inlets, and each of these is heavily lined 
with mangrove trees, so that they all look alike. One of the 
small bays opens into the cut-off, and that one we had to find. If 
we went too far into a false channel there was a very strong likeli- 
hood that it would take us hours to find our way out again. The 
nearest inhabited shore was about two miles off, and there a feeble 
light occasionally glimmered — one solitary light, on a beach that 
we knew, although we could not see it, to be three or four miles 
long. I asked our sailor what light that was. 

" That," said he, "is at old Joe Franklin's. The safest way 
will be for you to go straight to that shore, and then follow along 
the beach until you come to the cut-off. You'll never find it if 
you go right toward it. " 



90 "as otheks see us." 

The light on shore was very feeble, and occasionally we lost it 
entirely. I asked the sailor whether he had a lantern aboard, and 
he said he had. He could not leave his sloop, but had to stay 
with her all night, wherever he anchored. He said, however, that 
he was used to staying in her alone, and would not mind having 
his passengers leave him. I insisted upon having the lantern lighted 
and hoisted at the mast-head, so that whatever happened we 
could find our way back to the sloop. Anybody who can row a 
boat knows that it is impossible to keep one in a straight line at 
night without something for a guide, and we had no desire to 
spend the night rowing around in a circle. The light on shore 
disappeared so often it seemed likely to go out altogether, and I 
looked about for something else to use for a guide. Happy 
thought ! there were the dozen stars. So many ships have been 
guided safe into port by them they ought surely to do a good turn 
to our little row-boat. But I was under a great disadvantage in 
trying to steer a boat by the stars, for I knew nothing whatever 
about astromomy, and had to invent an entire new system of my 
own, even to giving names to the stars, my celestial education be- 
ing confined to the Dipper and the Southern Cross. By great good 
luck I found three trump stars almost in a straight line, and that 
line pointing direct from the sloop to the light on shore. What 
could be easier than to follow that line ? I immediately named 
the three stars Venus, Adonis, and Gibraltar, (which I consider 
very neat and appropriate names), and we stepped into the boat, 
having first given the deserted sailor nearly all the tobacco we had 
and left him a supply of matches. 

" Now," said Mr. Curtis to the crew, " tell us once more the 
exact direction of the cut-off from the sloop, will you ?" 

The old tar stood up on the forward deck, leaning far over, 
holding on to the stay, and, without saying a word, answered by 
pointing his hand, thus : 



We left him standing so, and put off into the darkness, Mr. 
Curtis and I at the oars. The direction he gave us was northwest, 
as nearly as I could make it out. But our objective point was Joe 
Franklin's, where the light was, and thitherward we headed the 



"as others see us." 91 

boat. I had a grand chart before me, composed of objects both 
celestial and terrestrial, very much like this : 
* The Sloop. 

* Venus. 

* Adonis. 

* Gibraltar. 

* 

The Light on Shore. 
"How beautifully Heaven has arranged things for us naviga- 
tors," I thought, " to put stars in a straight line like that. Won- 
der I never thought of guiding myself by them before. Why, no- 
body could miss his way with such a row of lanterns as that in 
the sky !" But I was young and fresh in the astronomical business 
then ; I have less faith in it now. We " rowed the boat lightly, 
love, over the sea," though she might have gone even more lightly 
if our two lady passengers had been a trifle thinner. To enliven us 
up a bit, we tried to start a song; but no two of us knew the same 
tune, and we gave it up. It was a dead still night, just such a 
time as the prowling drum-fish like for a stroll, and they gave us 
more music than we wanted. It was melancholy music, and made 
us wish ourselves in front of the supper table in the Palma Sola 
Hotel. They made a continual din in our ears, with their loud 
"boom," ''boom," "boom." The water was full of the little insects 
or whatever it is that makes phosphorus, and our oars made waves 
of fire with every stroke. It seemed very solemn and impressive, 
this ride through utter darkness. One of the ladies said it was a 
very solemn thing to be alone thus with the Creator ; and the sacri- 
legious Mr. Curtis said it was deucedly more solemn to be alone 
without the Creator, as we seemed to be just then. However, we 
pulled on and on, half a mile or so, and then I took another ob- 
servation, and found there had just been a celestial earthquake. 
The stars were all knocked out of place. My nice straight line was 
broken into fragments, and the stars, the sloop, and Joe Frank- 
lin's window were utterly and hopelessly mixed. Here was the 
beautiful chart I had to steer by on the -second observation : 

* Venus. 

* Gibraltar. 

* Adonis. 

*The Sloop. *Joe Franklin's. 



92 "as others see us." 

It was alarming to think how the stars had been jumbled up. 
I didn't mind it so much for ourselves, because the worst that was 
likely to happen to us was a night in a rowboat; but so many ships 
at sea were depending upon their being stationary and orderly there 
was no telling what disasters might be caused. If these three are 
what they call fixed stars they're very badly fixed. They put us out 
of our course and left us all at sea. A minute after this second 
observation, and before we had entirely recovered from the astonish- 
ment it caused, Joe Franklin's light disappeared, and we determined 
to make a bold stroke direct for the cut-off, without trying to reach 
the other shore. Guided only by the light at the sloop's mast- 
head, we pulled for the cut-off, thought we had found it, rowed 
some distance up a little inlet, and found we were in the wrong 
place. We backed out, tried another inlet, and found we had 
made another mistake. We were lucky enough each time to be 
able to find our way back to the bay, but these set-backs discour- 
aged us. "Why not land on this shore, and go to the nearest 
house ?" perhaps somebody would ask. Because the nearest house 
on that side was miles and miles away, with impossibilities of man- 
grove swamps and pine barrens between. Tired of hunting in 
this wild fashion for the cut-off, we concluded to make another 
effort to reach Joe Franklin's, where we could at least find shelter, 
and perhaps procure a guide. Joe Franklin is an old colored chap 
who is said to have passed his hundredth birthday, and who lives 
with his wife (of nearly equal age) in a beautifully romantic palmetto 
house, surrounded by gardens and orange groves, on the back 
shore of Snead's Island, facing on Terra Ceia Bay. When we were 
once more out on the open waters of the bay, clear of the man- 
groves and the dark shadows of the towering palmettoes, I took 
another observation. Three times and out; never again will I un- 
dertake to guide anything by the stars, for I have no more faith in 
them; they have basely deceived me. The three planets had got 
up close together, as if they were holding a convention, and 
Joe Franklin's and the sloop were completely reversed, after this 
fashion: - 

* foe Franklin s. 



*%* The three stars. 



* The sloop. 



"as others see its." 93 

We could distinguish Joe Franklin's light from that on the 
sloop, because Franklin's had grown much larger and was a deeper 
red. For a moment, but only for a moment, we thought of pulling 
back to the sloop and giving it up. But we changed our minds, 
set up the battle-cry of "Joe Franklin's or a watery grave," 
and steered for the aged darky's light. We had not gone far 
when one of the ladies sitting in the stern seat, being able to see 
ahead, exclaimed: 

" Why, Joe Franklin's house is moving down the beach!" 

We all looked around, and so it was. The light, which was, 
we thought, in the window of the palmetto house, was moving 
down the beach and coming nearer to us. None of us were much 
surprised. Under ordinary circumstances we might have been; but 
after the way we had seen the stars shuffled about the mere moving 
of a small house was nothing remarkable. We continued to pull 
for the light, which still kept approaching us; and presently we 
were delighted to hear voices. They sounded like the music of 
the angels, and brought our courage up 50 per cent, in a minute. 
If Old Joe Franklin's house was moving off, somebody at any 
rate was in it. Louder and louder the voices grew, nearer and 
nearer the light came, growing every minute, till at last it 
was close enough for us to see that it was a great naming 
torch held in the bow of a boat, and that the two oc- 
cupants of the boat were spearing fish. So romantic was the 
scene, and so beautiful the sight, this torch lighting up the two 
fishermen and their boat, making a circle of light like the glare 
from a magic-lantern, that we enjoyed it for some time before we 
hailed them. They were coming in our direction, and not a min- 
ute passed but they speared one or two big fish. 

" Hello-o-o!" we shouted to them; "will you tell us the way 
to the cut-off?" 

"Just the opposite way from what you're going," one of 
the fishermen replied. " We're going through it, and you'd better 
follow us." 

We followed them very willingly at an easy pace, they spear- 
ing fish all the way across the bay, for we had managed to get to 
the wrong side, of course, and were further away from home than 
when we started. At length we reached the cut-off, the fishermen 



94 



AS OTHEKS SEE US. 



went up the river and we went down, we bade them good night, 
and we were soon in Palma Sola, devouring everything in the hotel 
pantry. As we sat on the front piazza an hour later the sound of 
a shrill whistle came across the water. It was our deserted sailor 
over on Terra Ceia Bay, blowing a great conch shell to let us know 
that he was still alive. 

As my advent in Palma Sola was unprepared for, so my exit 
from it was unexpected. One of the steamers of the Tampa Com- 
pany usually arrived there on Sunday afternoon and lay till Mon- 
day evening on her way to Key West. Last Sunday afternoon the 
steamer T. J. Cochran arrived, and went on up to Manatee to dis- 
charge and take on freight. As she was coming down the river the 
Alabama, of the same line, came in, and the two vessels met nearly 
opposite Mr. Warner's house just above the Palma Sola wharf. The 
Alabama signaled the Cochran to come alongside and both boats 
stopped. As we watched them from the front of the Palma Sola 
store, and as minutes grew into quarter hours and quarters into full 
hours, we began to wonder why they lay there so long. When we 
saw the Cochran send the end of a stout hawser over to the Ala- 
bama, and saw both vessels start their engines at full speed, we 
knew that the Alabama was aground. The wind and tide had 
drifted her around upon a flat, and she was hard and fast. "Served 
her jolly well right," was the opinion of everybody who saw her, for 
the two steamers had approached each other in midstream rather 
than have the delay and expense of going up to the wharf, when 
they wanted to transfer some portion of their cargo; and this was 
only in accordance with the usual careful management of the Tampa 
Steamship Company. The Cochran tugged away for an hour or 
two without effect, and then came down to the Palma Sola wharf 
to wait for the tide to rise and to unload some of her cargo. I went 
aboard to inquire when she would leave for Key West, and was 
given the startling information that it would be necessary to get 
aboard at once, as the Cochran, after pulling the Alabama out of 
the sand, would proceed to Tampa, and sail thence for Key West, 
but would not stop at Palma Sola on her way out; so, for Key 
West passengers, it was "all aboard."' The distance from Palma 
Sola to Key West is something like 175 miles, but by this very neat- 
and accommodating arrangement of the steamship company, it was 



"as others see us." 95 

necessary to add a journey of 70 miles to Tampa and back. But 
there was no help for it, for this line has a monopoly of the west 
coast traffic, so I had my baggage put aboard the Cochran, and bid 
a reluctant adieu to Palma Sola and her good people. The Cochran 
steamed up the river again to the Alabama, passed her another 
line, and began anew the work of trying to pull her off. There 
were only two or three passengers aboard, and we were consoled 
with the information that the Cochran " would not start for a week 
unless she got the Alabama off." By great good luck the Alabama 
"came off" just before dark, and the Cochran started for Tampa. 
As it is just possible that some other unlucky New Yorker may be 
compelled to travel down the Gulf in one of the vessels of the 
Tampa Steamship Company, I will try to give a brief description of 
the T. J. Cochran, so that he will know what to expect. Upon tak- 
ing hold of some loose rope and climbing aboard, as you usually 
have to do, you find yourself on the main deck, which is just far 
enough from the upper deck to allow a very short man to stand 
upright. A man of any reasonable height, when he goes to his 
berth or crawls in to his meals, has to hump his shoulders like a 
camel, and keep his chin well down on his chest. This fine speci- 
men of marine architecture is of between 300 and 400 tons burden, 
and is very appropriately painted black. There is a general appear- 
ance and smell as if her decks and rails were greased every morning 
with whale-oil. The cabin passengers and the crew eat together, 
and the captain occasionally comes down to a meal, and sours the 
condensed milk with his austere and dyspeptic countenance. I very 
much regret that I have lost the card on which I wrote the name of 
this agreeable seaman, the captain of the Cochran, for it would give 
me pleasure to serve him upon the half-shell with all due solemnity. 
But nameless as he is, I confidently recommend him for the surliest, 
most unaccommodating officer that ever shuffled over a greasy deck. 
The purser and all the rest of the officers are good fellows, and they 
made such apologies as they dared for the remarkable conduct of 
the captain, who, they said, is a Norwegian, and does not know the 
customs of the country. There were several New Yorkers aboard, 
afterward, and it is very largely at their solicitation that I waste so 
much trouble on this captain; they all offered to wager large sums 
that he is the surliest man in the world, but there were no takers. 



96 "AS OTHERS SEE US. 

Monday morning found us at the head of Tampa Bay, at anchor, 
about two miles out of Tampa. The object in going so far out of 
the way was to lay in a supply of wood for the furnaces, for wood 
can be bought a few cents a cord cheaper at Tampa than at Palma 
Sola. The sun began to shine with a blaze like a blast-furnace, and 
all the tar and paint about the ship turned into liquid. Before 9 
o'clock in the morning the decks blistered the feet of whoever 
walked over them. I was deliberating whether I should stay on 
board and be broiled or drop overboard and be gobbled by a shark, 
when the accommodating purser came to me and said: 

' ' The captain is going ashore in the yawl. Don't you want to 
go up and see something of Tampa ?" 

All the desire I had to see Tampa would have rattled around 
in the eye of a needle, but the trip offered a chance of escape from 
the heat of the ship, and I went. The animated lump of tar and 
oakum that bore the captain's uniform and I occupied the stern seat, 
and two sailors rowed us. I immediately opened up an animated 
conversation with the captain. I asked him some question about 
Tampa, and he replied: 
"Umph." 

I ventured some other little remark, and again he answered : 
"Umph." 

The sailors looked at each other slyly, and wanted to smile. 
Presently we reached the mouth of the little creek on which Tampa 
stands, and went up past the beautiful spot lately vacated by the 
Government, where the barracks used to be. This place faces the 
bay, and has on it a small old-fashioned house, surrounded by im- 
mense trees. The Government abandoned the property for some 
reason or other, leaving it open for settlement under the homestead 
act, and half of Tampa has been fighting for it ever since, to see 
who shall have the plum. We were soon alongside of a rickety 
old wharf and made a landing by the side of a big steamboat,which 
proved to be an old New York acquaintance, the Eliza Hancox. 
The captain and his men went up the street to Miller & Hender- 
son's store, to see about supplies for the steamer, and I sauntered 
along after them and went into the store, too. Miller & Hender- 
son own the Tampa Steamship Line, a big store in Tampa, and 
■up to this time they have practically owned the central part of the 



"AS OTHERS SEE US." 97 

west coast of Florida, through controlling its transportation facili- 
ties. But now that Tampa has a railroad the monopoly is broken. 
The railroad was opened on the very day that I reached Tampa, 
and everybody who owns a square inch of land is wild over the in- 
creased value of his property. Knots of men were down on their 
knees and haunches on the sidewalks making diagrams of their 
" property " and telling how much they had already been offered 
for their lots, and how much they expected to realize on them. 
There was a regular "boom" in real estate, as far as sellers were 
concerned, but I did not see any excited men rushing around look- 
ing for a chance to buy. It will be easy to draw a picture of Tampa. 
Take any little New Jersey town with 2,000 or 3,000 inhab- 
itants and sand six inches deep in every street ; put a few orange 
and lemon trees in the front yards, and you have Tampa. Only 
the temperature of the New Jersey town in August Tampa has in 
January and February. The heat wilted me down, the merciless 
sand filled my shoes, and I longed for a comfortable place to sit 
down and rest, but longed in vain, for the principal hotel is like a 
barn, and a barn that has not been cleaned for some months. 
There is said to be a very good hotel two or three miles out of 
town, built for winter visitors, but I did not go to it. I went into 
a drug store to make some trifling purchase, and was told by the 
jeweler, who occupied the other side of the room, that the druggist 
had gone out, and that I could get what I wanted in about an hour. 
I walked over the town as much as the intense heat and the deep 
sand would permit, and saw many cozy homesteads, surrounded 
by handsome yards, with plenty of oranges growing and shady 
nooks of verandas ; some curious four-horse wagons, just in from 
the country, driven by equally curious natives ; a great lot of Flor- 
ida darkies, born with a genius for leaning against the shady side 
of a house and chewing tobacco. The captain's boat was not to 
go back to the Cochran till 8 o'clock in the evening, and before I 
had been in Tampa an hour I began to wonder how I could get 
back to the ship — which might be hot, but could not possibly be 
as hot as the town. Fortunately, the purser's boat, loaded with 
provisions, went out to the ship at 3 o'clock, and I went with her. 
I was in Tampa just five hours ; next time I come I will not care 
to stay more than four hours and a half. W. D. 



98 "as others see us." 

PALMA SOLA— FLORIDA. 

Editor of the Florida Agriculturist: 

Within a few months, Braidentown and Sarasota have both 
been heard from, but I see nothing from Palma Sola. If no one 
else will sing its praises I must needs do it myself. 

Three years ago, where the village of Palma Sola now stands, 
it was, literally, a "howling wilderness." Then Messrs. Warner 
& Beach awoke to the fact that it was a beautiful site for a towm 
and presto, change, it is transformed. First began the erection of a 
large saw-mill, and naturally cottages for the workhands followed. 
Settlers began to pour in. The cottages were soon filled. Others 
had to be built. Then to supply the rapidly growing town, Mr. 
Warner erected a fine store. For weeks before it was opened we 
heard of nothing else. We feasted, in imagination, while listening 
to the accounts of the stock of groceries constantly arriving, and 
when the grand opening day came no one was disappointed. 
Everything was on a mammoth scale. But alas ! for human 
hopes. In a few days the news flew through the country that 
Warner had burned out, and everything was lost. It was only too 
true. The store and wharf on which it stood had burned to the 
water's edge. Things uninjured by the fire were destroyed by the 
water into which they dropped. A new engine destined for the 
saw-mill, and which was in the warehouse, was also destroyed. 
No insurance. But fearful as the loss was, Palma Sola never 
flinched. Mr. Warner does not know the meaning of the word fail. 
In less than a month a new stock arrived and was put into a tem- 
porary building. Then, like the fabled Phoenix, a new store rose 
from the ashes of the old one. If possible, a better stock than the 
first one was put into this new venture. So much for the founding 
of the tiny city 'yclept Palma Sola. As for the location, "like a 
jewel on a maiden's breast," lies Palma Sola on the bank of the 
Manatee. Only two miles from the mouth of the river, it is plainly 
to be seen from Tampa Bay, and a more beautiful picture was 
never painted. In the background, the "forest primeval," the 
stately pine trees of the South. On the neck of the land extending 
into the river is the mill. From the mill an immense steamboat 
wharf extends out into the river, and on the end of this wharf is the 



"AS OTHEBS SEE US." 99 

store, postoffice and warehouse. Back of the mill lies Palma Sola, 
a collection of pretty little cottages, some gothic, others simply box 
houses, so popular in California and Florida. All are snowy white 
as paint and whitewash can make them. In the center of the 
village — I should have written — is a large hotel, erected by Mr. 
Warner, and run by Mr. L. G. Jenness, the well-known hotel man 
— himself the proprietor of a magnificent summer hotel at Scroon 
Lake, Orange County, New York ; his name is a guarantee that 
everything possible will be done for the comfort of the guests of the 
house. Who that has sojourned South will fail to remember the 
genial host of the Suwannee House in Cedar Keys, and the Rus- 
sell House in Key West, both of which hotels have been under Mr. 
Jenness's management ? The hotel itself is a large, square, frame 
building, furnished in the daintiest style imaginable. The view 
from the upper windows is simply magnificent. From the north 
and west windows, Egmont Key Light is plainly to be seen ; look- 
ing eastward, the Manatee, one catches glimpses of Fogartyville, 
Braidentown, Manatee and Palmetto. The river is continually 
dotted with sails and tiny boats. From the south windows can be 
seen the piney woods. The hunting and fishing in the vicinity is 
very fine. Boats of all descriptions, from a schooner-rig to row- 
boat, can be obtained from the boat livery of the Hammatt Bros. 
In the distance, across the bayou, lies San Terre, the home of W. S. 
Warner, a house in the gothic style of architecture, surrounded by 
grounds of unsurpassing beauty, and a fine orange grove. At 
the foot of the beautiful lawn is the wharf, at the end of which lies a 
perfect float of pleasure boats belonging to the house, noticeable 
among which is the steam yacht "Alice," used occasionally in 
towing a raft of logs from the extensive log camps run by the mill, 
far up the river and adjacent creeks. I have no time to describe 
other homes here, but there are many beautiful ones. 

To those wanting homes in South Florida, I say come and 
look at our little city before settling elsewhere. To the wealthy it 
offers many attractions. No more beautiful locations can be found 
anywhere for the erection of handsome homes. Land can be 
bought in any quantity from a city lot to a thousand acres. Mr. 
Warner is the agent for the Disston Land Company, and has 
already sold thousands of acres of land, and there are ninety thou- 



100 "AS othees see us." 

sand more to be sold. ' To the poor man, Palma Sola offers as 
many attractions as the wealthy. There is work for all classes and 
ages, for mill hands, lumbermen, laborers, carpenters, blacksmiths, 
cabinet-makers, wheelwrights, for every one save physicians ; we 
have no use for them. Wages are from $1.25 to $2.50 per day. 
Board can be obtained for from 40 to 50 cents per day. Houses 
can be rented for from $3.00 to $8.00 per month. Warner & Co. 
give employment to all who apply. Everything which is necessary 
for comfort can be obtained from the store — hardware, tinware, 
dry goods, furniture, groceries, jewelry, toys, everything in fact 
from a steamboat to a clothespin. The saw-mill is constantly turn- 
ing out fine lumber, sash, shingles, doors, blinds, etc. An Episco- 
palian Church and a school-house are to be the next improve- 
ments. " Dost like the picture ?" Bohemienne. 



"as others see its." 101 

The following article, cut from the Jacksonville Times- Union, 
will interest the Northern hotel keepers looking for statistics on 
Florida business. It will be understood that this record represents 
but a small part of the Tourist travel into the State, and is only val- 
uable as showing the increase in the seasons named. During the 
season of 1883-84 the records of the railroads entering Jacksonville 
show the arrival of 130,000 tourists, to which might be added fully 
20 per cent, for an estimate of the arrivals by the steamers and 
railroad lines terminating at other points in the State. When it is 
considered that $200 is probably a moderate estimate of the average 
expenditure of each one of this pleasure-seeking crowd we can well 
understand the activity of all business interests during the time 
this money is flowing in. 

The Lelands, of hotel fame, have had these figures in view for 
some years, and Warren Leland, Jr. , of the Ocean House, Long 
Branch, has secured a location at Palma Sola for the erection of a 
winter resort. The prediction is a safe one, based as it is upon the 
natural attractions of the place, that he will make this the " Long 
Branch " of Florida. 



THE HOTEL BUSINESS. 



An Increase of 8,281 Visitors Over the Season Last Year. 



Below we give, by actual count, the total number of arrivals at 
the various hotels in this city keeping registers for the seasons of 
1882-3 and 1883-4, including the months of October, November, 
December, January, February, March and April, of each year. 
From this report it will be seen that for each month during the sea- 
son just closed there has been an increase in the number of arri- 
vals, the total increase for the season over that of 1882-3 being 8, 281. 
Some of the largest hotels show a falling off, and others an increase. 
The falling off of the number of Everett arrivals can be attributed to 
the decrease of the transient business caused by the close connec- 
tion of the boats with the trains and the fact that that hotel closed 
at least two weeks earlier than last season. The fallinof oft' at the 



102 



AS OTHEKS SEE US. 



Carleton is attributed to the fact that a restaurant has been run in 
connection with that hotel, and, unlike previous years, hundreds of 
persons took meals at the restaurant during the season without reg- 
istering their names. We were unable to get the arrivals at the 
Carleton for the months of April, 1883-4/01 the reason that the pro- 
prietors have gone North and left their register locked up in their 
safe, but this will not make a difference of more than five hundred 
for either month. Below will be found the table giving the num- 
ber of arrivals at each hotel for the months specified : 







Season 


of 1882 and 1883. 






HOTEL. 



O 


> 





a 

=3 

Ha 




o 
u 


'u 
ft 
< 


O 

H 






191 


654 

329 

1,264 

416 


1,988 
334 

1,405 
386 


1,262 
574 

1.883 
425 


1,287 
586 

2,202 
387 


40 
813 
288 
191 


5 382 






1,863 
8 194 






627 






1,903 
191 


























322 


326 


395 
682 

481 


422 
1,072 
653 
199 
284 
1,500 
342 


401 
1,694 
697 
372 
281 
854 
1,40 8 


418 
2,158 
487 
521 
203 
293 
2,129 


353 
678 
685 
134 
164 
393 
721 


2,637 




6,284 




638 


755 


4,396 




1,127 




164 


336 


230 


1,662 




2,540 










460 














1,124 


2,235 


4,451 


8,586 


9,351 


10,572 


4,460 


40,779 







Season 


of 1883 and 1884. 






HOTEL. 


O 


> 

o 


6 
ft 


a 

1-5 


.a 

0) 


o 

u 


Pi 

< 


"3 
o 
H 






198 


518 
902 
903 
360 


943 

685 

1,402 

413 


1,138 
718 

1,847 
391 


1,148 
700 

2,056 
265 


610 
266 
443 

1,695 
396 
247 
600 
590 
401 
179 
690 

1,024 


3,945 






3,515 






474 
364 


6,948 




283 


2,600 




1,698 




265 


73 
382 


578 
375 
606 
491 
588 
218 


612 
372 

1,305 
613 
615 
326 

2,280 
397 


716 
313 

1,909 
618 
512 
308 
653 

1,266 


485 
261 

2,285 
582 
569 
218 
795 

2,170 


2,860 
2,215 




6,675 




666 
196 
183 


643 
502 
309 


4,293 




3,383 




1,706 




4,418 










4,857 












Totals 


1,593 
1,124 


2,935 
2,235 


5,539 
4,451 


9,852 
8,586 


10,385 
9,351 


11,604 
10,572 


7,141 
4,460 


49,060 


Totals of above months in 1882-3.. 
Monthly and total increase of the 


40,779 


469 


700 


1,088 


1,266 


1,034 


1,032 


2,681 


8,281 



"as others see trs." 103 

WINDSOR HOTEL. 

Arrivals at the Windsor Hotel for the season ending May ist, 
1884, classified by States : New York 1,953, Pennsylvania 572, 
Massachusetts 402, Illinois 215, Ohio 152, New Jersey 151, Flori- 
da 209, District of Columbia 55, Virginia 49, California 23, New 
Hampshire 30, Georgia 92, Maryland 84, Minnesota 48, Delaware 
16, Vermont 33, South Carolina 20, Wisconsin 42, Tennessee 38, 
Connecticut 141, Maine 39, Kentucky 52, North Carolina 19, 
Rhode Island 84, Alabama 8, Missouri 41, Texas 6, Indiana 22, 
Mississippi 4, Michigan 56, Oregon 10, Dakota 5, Iowa 26, Wyoming 

1, Utah 3, Mexico 1, Louisiana 7, Montana 4, Colorado 20, Arkansas 

2, Kansas 4, West Virginia 2, Nevada 1, England 53, Canada 35, 
Ireland 15, Scotland 7, Nova Scotia 10, Austria 2, Germany 1, 
Italy 1, France 1 — total 4,857. 

Departures classified by railroads and boats for the season 
ending May ist, 1884: Cygnus 543, Sylvester 208, DeBary Line 
142, Glen 172, Mail boat 12, Georgia 1, Water Lily 6, Arlington 
boat 1, Margaret 14, Hancock 26, Mabel 2, Florida 6, Merrimac 
2, to Mayport 2, Port Royal 7, City of Palatka 80, Yacht Pratt 1, 
Yacht Ileen 3, Yacht Ryder 1, S., F. and W. Railway 2,251, F. C. 
and W. Railway 311, J. and St. A. Railway 483, F. and J. Rail- 
way 28, Florida Transit 10, J., T. and K. W. 144 — total 4,857. 



FROM 

METEOROLOGICAL REPORT. 



^B£TF(ACT f OVERIJMQ A ^ERJOD Op Jv/ELVE YeAR^. 



AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF THE WEATHER IN 

FLORIDA AS RECORDED IN THE SIGNAL OFFICE IN 

JACKSONVILLE AND WASHINGTON, ETC. 



Below will be found a complete report of the weather in this 
city, as observed by the United States Signal Observer for the past 
twelve years. The report was prepared for the Times-Union by 
Sergeant J. W. Smith, the Observer in charge of the office here, 
and afterwards sent to the office of the Chief Signal Officer in 
Washington, where it was compared with the original records of 
this office on file there and corrected. 



METEOKOLOGICAL. 



105 



00 

1-i 


•UB3H 


56.7 
55.8 
60.6 
67.7 
73.9 
81.6 
82.1 
81.0 
79.1 
71.6 
62.0 
56.9 


d 


•aim 


Ht-toecococoot-OHCJ 

COCOCO-*-*t<COtOI>«OiOaOCN 


- 


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00 


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I 

SO 


oooatBaonfioioBX 

lOiOWCOC-OOXXt-COO-* 


•ujh 


OtfiHt-^tOHO'CMtD^I 

coeoco>*>o«ot-c-?0'wc<3CH 




xtK 


o«(Nau:ciHcot-co?iH 

XX»XClQO*.C.COXt- 






X 
tH 


•treajM 


cic v iHiocio:t-cO'flH?H' 


X 
X 


»t:ioco*.oc-l— xt-t-coow 


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•x«n[ 


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xxxwcsjiooa. x«» 






00 


•ueaj^ 


59.4 
68.6 
65.9 
69.9 
75.4 
80.6 
80 
78.8 
77.3 
69.0 
64 
58.6 


d 
to 


•ajH 


mt-t-cipixcixtocioin 

C0C0CO'*»Q<COtCCOir3-#'<*CO 

1 


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t-XX005 01CT.OCT.XXt- 






m 

X 


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0)03HH*HOinH010)03 


X 
3 


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t- t- X CT. Ol O I Ol C XX t- 





CO 
X 


•UU0J\[ 


57.9 

64.3 

60 

70.1 

73 

80.9 

84.1 

80.8 

76 5 

74.2 

63.3 

60.5 


3 


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ClOOCNMIXCT. OCNOJCOO 
C» -** -•* O lO CO to I- SO "Ci -* 00 




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i-xc-xxcr.oio-.0)SXt- 




ci 

X 

X 


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62.5 
61.7 
66.6 
70.9 
74.5 
81.1 
80 9 
81.6 
77.8 
72.6 
60.0 
54.2 


© 


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106 



METEOROLOGICAL. 



War Department, 
Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 
Washington, D. C, January 16, 1883. 
Statement showing the mean, maximum, minimum and water temper- 
atures; the precipitation, in inches and hundredths, and the mean rela- 
tive humidity, at Punta Rassa, Florida, for each month from the com- 
mencement of observations to December, 1882. (Compiled from the 
records on file at the office of the Chief Signal Officer, U. S. Army, Wash- 
ington, D. C.) 

PUNTA RASSA, FLORIDA.— MEAN MONTHLY TEMPERATURES. 

(Computed from the three Telegraphic Observations.) 



X 
cd 
p 

H 


s 

i 

l-i 


cd 
C 

p 


K 

n 

Q 


f 


K 

EP 
•< 


a 

a 

cd 




05 
P 


a 


O 
o 

o 
c 
a 


3 
o 

cd 

B 


O 

CD 

o 

CO 

B 


K 

CD 
P 

a 




<< 








—- 








cd 
n 




cd 


cd 




1871 
















80.2 


77.2 


71.6 


65.7 




1872 


61.5 


62.8 


68.0 


76.3 


78.0 


81.0 


80.3 


81.8 


79.8 


73.7 


67.8 


62.7 


72 8 


1873 


61.6 


66.0 


64.7 


72.6 


79.3 


81.0 


81.1 


80.2 


80 


72.0 


66.2 


65.2 


72.5 


1874 


62.9 


68.7 


71.3 


73.7 


75 9 


79.4 


80.7 


81.2 


78 8 


74.2 


70.1 


65.5 


73.5 


1875 


69.6 


65.9 


70.6 


70.0 


76.5 


79.1 


80.9 


79.5 


80.8 


74.5 


73.3 


66.6 


73.9 


1876 


67.1 


68.7 


67.9 


72.5 


75.6 


80.4 


80.4 


81.4 


80.8 


74.5 


66.6 


59.9 


73.0 


1877 


65.6 


64.4 


66.7 


70.9 


75.5 


81.7 


82.6 


82.1 


81.9 


77.3 


69.6 


64.1 


73.5 


1878 


60.0 


63.5 


69.8 


74.6 


78.4 


81.5 


82.5 


83.0 


80.1 


75. 2 


69.1 


61.5 


73.3 


1879 


61.7 


63.3 


69.4 


70.8 


75.7 


79.1 


81.1 


80.9 


78.8 


76.8 


69.2 


70.2 


73.1 


1880 


67.9 


68.2 


72.5 


73.4 


75.8 


80.2 


81.8 


80.3 


80.0 


74.9 


72.9 


62.7 


74.2 


1881 


64.5 


65.2 


64.9 


69.5 


76.3 


81.7 


82.9 


80.6 


79.9 


77.2 


72.1 


67.7 


73.5 


1882 


67.9 


67.9 


70.8 


75.4 


76.7 


80.5 


80.4 


80.8 


79.6 


76.3 


67.1 
69.6 


62.6 

64.5 


73.8 


Mns. 


64.6 


65.9 


68.8 


72.7 


76.7 


80.5 


81.3 


81.0 


80.1 


75.3 


73.4 



Note. — The daily means are obtained by dividing the sum of the read- 
ings at the three telegraphic observations by three; the monthly means by 
dividing the sum of the daily means by the number of days in the month. 

MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES. 



CD 
P 


en 

p 

a 
p 
p 
i 


CD 

o" 

p 

p 


SB 

• 


2. 


p 
<< 


P 
P 
CD 




1872 


77 


78.5 


81 


87 


92 


91 


92 


1873 


80 


79 


81 


88 


90 


94 


93 


1874 


79 


84 


85 


87 


90 


91 


91 


1875 


80 


80 


83.5 


82 


86 


89 


91.1 


1876 


81.5 


81 


81.8 


84 


90 


92 


92 


1877 


80 


77 


80.5 


83 


85 


93 


93 


1878 


74 


75 


84 


84 


89 


92 


91 


1879 


78 


79 


81 


85 


89 


91 


92 


1880 


80 


79 


84 


86 


98 


93 


92 


1881 


30 


78 


82 


86 


89 


92 


92 


1882 


80 


81 


83.5 


85 


90 


91 


91.5 



o 


5 


O 








§• 


< 
P 


a 

CD 

B 


►1 




a- 










^ 


■ 


88 


83 


80 


88 


83 


81 


85 


82 


80 


89 


85 


81 


89.5 


82.5 


75 


89 


87 


78 


88 


81 


76 


89 


84 


80 


88 


83 


81 


89 


86 


82.5 


87 


84 


78 



METEOROLOGICAL. 



107 



MINIMUM TEMPERATURES. 



K 
a 

e 


5-1 

89 

a 


CO 
1 


g- 

1-1 

a 

CO 

•"3 


g 
to 

H 

a 

S3" 






a 




> 
da 


DQ 

a 

"2- 

a 

B 
c 
a 


O 
o 

o 

cr 
a 


izj 

o 
< 
a 

B 
c 

CD 

Pi 


B 

o 
a 
a 

B 

c 




1871 


















72 


69 


50.5 


43 




1872 


39 


46 


50 


68 


65 


71 


72 


71 


71 


58 


37 


35 




1873 


37 


47 


38 


65 


03 


72 


69 


71 


72 


57 


42 


40 




1874 


42 


50 


55 


55 


59 


70 


70 


71 


67 


64 


50 


49 




1876 


51.2 


43 


50 


66.5 


62 


69 


69 


70.5 


69.5 


55.5 


51.5 


42 




1876 


42 


51 


44 


66 


61 


70 


67 


72 


69.5 


55 


48 


34 




1877 


40.5 


46.5 


50 


55,5 


62 


68 


75 


75 


70 


64 


42 


41 




1878 


42 


48 


50 


62 


64 


72 


73 


73 


69 


54 


48 


3S 




1879 


33 


44 


55 


48 


04 


6s 


70 


72 


71 


63 


46 


56 




1880 


53 


,52 


49 


53 


65 


67 


69 


70 


67 


57 


49 


39 




1881 


45 


46 


49 


46 


65 


71.5 


73 


70 


71 


66 


46 


48 




1882 


42 


49 


57 


64 


64 


68 


70.5 


72 


70 


60 


45 


36 





Mean op the Maximum and Minimum Temperatures of thk Water at the Ocean 

Bottom at Punta Karsa, Florida, for the Months named. 

Average depth of the water at the place where observations are taken is 11.9 feet. 



<t> 
P 
1 


CO 

d 



to 


e 

CO 

7 


d 


> 


K 

CO 


a 


■5 1 


> 

a 

d 


SB 

a 

S 

s 

C 


I 

o 

o 


o 
< 

CD 

c 


a 

a 
CD 


1878 


60.5 


* 


74.5 


76.0 


83.0 


88.0 


87.5 


86.5 


85.0 


t 


71.5 


64.5 


1879 


62.0 


66.0 


72.0 


75.0 


81.0 


85.0 


86.5 


85.0 


84.0 


78.0 


71.0 


70.5 


1880 


* 


70.5 


74.0 


76.5 


* 


85.5 


88.0 


83.5 


83.0 


78.0 


76.0 


66.5 


1881 


64.5 


66.0 


70.0 


73.5 


81.0 


86.0 


87.6 


84.8 


85.6 


80.6 


73.6 


68.8 


1882 


67.4 


70.0 


74.4 


79.0 


81.8 


85.3 


86.5 


88.0 


85.5 


80.3 


72.1 


65.6 



* Record incomplete. 
t Thermometer broken. 

PRECIPITATION.— (in inches and hundredths), 



1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 
1882 



2.64 
6.84 
2.05 
0.84 
0.04 
1.58 
4.03 
0.31 
3.22 
4.02 
0.30 



2.71 
0.48 
2.50 
0.03 
0.51 
2.89 
7.41 
2.11 
1.26 
0.52 
0.20 



0.69 
1.59 
0.08 
0.70 
1.35 
0.84 
2.24 
0.14 
0.03 
1.18 
0.15 



1.54 2.88 

3.58 I 9.89 
0.41 ! 1.27 

4.59 2.07 
0.88 I 2.73 
1.09 4.38 
4.05 5.06 



0.63 
0.55 
0.54 
3.59 



1.42 
5.32 
3.13 
2.61 



0.82 1.95 3.70 



7.16 8.68 

5.21 5.13 

11.94 I 8.06 



3.33 


5.33 


4.34 


16.95 


1.26 


6.59 


4.75 


9.68 


8.22 


6.21 


a. 45 


3.76 


2.53 


3.60 


8.46 


5.58 



4.08 
9.85 
5.11 

12.49 
5.19 
8.33 
3.95 

12.75 
8.55 
7.28 
3.62 



15.49 

15.14 

I 9.13 

I 4.73 

6.99 

4.07 

| 4.86 

8.77 

13.78 

I 2.50 

7.20 

4.12 



o 

a 
o 
c 

CD 


o 
< 
cd 

B 
c 
o 
>1 


1.80 


0.98 


2.82 


0.53 


3.90 


2.83 


0.09 


1.21 


2.08 


1.00 


6.25 


2.56 


1.99 


4.30 


0.56 


0.34 


4.85 


0.35 


8.10 


1.81 


1.58 


0.80 


3.90 


1.04 


3.08 


1.48 



ct 
o 
a 

B 

o- 

CD 
>1 


gel 
a » 

d 


2.68 




1.87 




1.67 


60.00 


0.71 


38.16 


1.26 


40.71 


0.47 


44.34 


0.93 


38.99 


1.07 


51.81 


0.52 


46.29 


1.98 


39.53 


1.22 


33.60 


1.10 


34.57 


1.28 


42.61 



108 



METEOROLOGICAL. 



MEAN RELATIVE HUMIDITY. — (from the three telegraphic observations. 



* 

a 

V 


a 

to 


§■ 


g 

i 
a 


> 

a 


g 

<< 


a 

a 


«4 


> 

OQ 


$ 
B 


O 
o 

o 
C 

a 


g 

o 
< 

a 

B 




CI> 

o 

CD 
i 




«< 


•^ 


















c 


CO 

1 


1873 


79 


75 


74 


73 


74 


75 


76 


78 


80 


73 


74 


78 


1874 


77 


80 


72 


72 


71 


78 


77 


76 


77 


72 


77 


77 


1875 


83 


77 


73 


67 


74 


74 


76 


79 


78 


7G 


81 


74 


1876 


75 


76 


71 


75 


74 


77 


79 


77 


77 


77 


73 


78 


1877 


73 


76 


70 


69 


70 


67 


71 


74 


72 


74 


75 


71 


1878 


78 


74 


74 


73 


70 


77 


79 


77 


77 


70 


70 


69 


1879 


72.7 


70.6 


70.4 


66.7 


70.9 


72 5 


74.8 


78.1 


81.8 


78.3 


71.4 


78.6 


1880 


77.3 


77.2 


71.0 


70.7 


74.8 


75.8 


72.9 


77.0 


75.0 


74.0 


81.0 


74.1 


1881 


79.0 


72.0 


69.0 


72.0 


70.0 


72.0 


73.1 


76 9 


78.2 


73.9 


75.4 


76.2 


1882 


76.3 


72.9 


69.4 


73.8 


70.5 


73.7 


77.1 


77.1 


76.7 


76.2 


71.9 


77.5 


Mean. 


77.2 


175.1 


71.7 
















75 


75 



ATWATER & ROBBINS, 



AND DEALERS IN 



Florida Real Estate. 

ALSO, 

Agents for the Purchase and Sale of Northern 
and Southern Produce, 

FRUITS, VEGETABLES, &e. 



Full information in regard to the West 
Coast of Florida will be given on applica- 
tion. Correspondence invited. 

Address, 

ATWATER & ROBBINS, 

PALMA SOLA, 

FLORIDA. 

P. S. — We will select Board (either Hotel or 
Private), negotiate terms, etc., etc., for parties de- 
siring to spend the Winter in Florida. 



BBRIMMr.-n 



PALMA SOLA LAND CO. 

CAPITAL, $100,000, PAID UP, 

QFFER 13,000 acres of choice Fruit Lands 

in the most tropical part of South Florida. 

10,000 acres of carefully selected Tim- 
ber Lands, in bodies to suit purchasers. 

Fruit Lands divided into io acre lots, each lot on a 
broad avenue, affording the best transportation facilities. 

PERFECTLY HEALTHY LOCATION. 

Good Society, Schools and Church. 
Daily transportation by steamer to present terminus 
of South Florida R. R. 

Town Lots at low prices, to encourage improvement. 
Fruit and Vegetable Lands are offered at from 

$5 to $20 per Acre, 

until March ist, 1 885. 

Parties wanting a home in Florida, in a quiet, well 
ordered community, made up largely of New England 
people, where no liquor is sold, no fences have to be 
built, and more conditions favorable to success are found 
than elsewhere in the State, are requested to come and see 
for themselves, or address for further information, 



PALMA SOLA LAND CO., 

Palma Sola, Fla. 



4 



